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| Century to take on U.S. marketing of its Yangtze itineraries |
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| By Michelle Baran |
The China tourism market is in the midst of rebuilding following a downturn initiated by last year's Summer Olympics in Beijing and amplified by the global economic crisis. And river cruise operator Chongqing New Century Cruise Co. intends to be ready when the market rebounds.
Century Cruises, as it's commonly known, owns four ships on China's Yangtze River. Until now, Viking River Cruises has had an exclusive charter agreement to sell Century Cruises in the U.S. market. But with Viking having reduced its charter to just one ship this year, Century will start selling and marketing the remaining three vessels directly to the U.S. market. |
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"Previously we had a contract with Viking, which had a certain limitation on our market exploration in the U.S. market," said Richard Xie, the U.S. market sales representative for Century Cruises. "Since the return of the Century Sun, they just eliminated those limitations for us."
Century Cruises is a division of the Chongqing New Century Tourism Group, founded in 1999.
In 2003, the Chongqing, China-based company entered the Yangtze River cruise business with the launch of its first ship, the 180-passenger Century Star. That same year, Century partnered with Viking to charter the vessel.
Century constructed two 306-passenger sister ships: the Century Sky, in 2005, and the Century Sun, in 2006. In 2005, Viking returned the Century Star and started chartering the Century Sky and Century Sun until this year, when it relinquished the Sky, retaining a long-term charter agreement on the Century Sun.
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Last year, Century launched its newest river ship: the 264-passenger Century Diamond, with 112 standard cabins, four executive cabins, 14 deluxe cabins and two suites.
Century currently markets its ships to the European and Southeast Asian markets. But now, according to Xie, it plans to expand into the U.S., though the company is still just in the exploration phase with no set date for when the product will be available for the U.S.
"We are quite new to this market, even though our product has been in this market for quite a few years," said Xie. First, he said, the company is working to "establish a certain cooperation relationship with tour operators and travel agencies. For the second step, we possibly will establish an office. We will cooperate with tour operators or open our own office."
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One of Century Cruises' biggest competitors in the U.S. market for Yangtze River cruises is Victoria Cruises, which has numerous partnerships with U.S. tour operators. But now Century is making a run at the U.S. customer, with plans to attend several trade shows in the coming year to start getting the word out.
The marketing situation on the Chinese Yangtze cruise seems very good," Xie said.
But, he said, "of course, so far, this is a hard time for all the cruise lines on the Yangtze," especially with one of the top markets, the U.S. market, having been hit so hard by the economy.
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From ¡¶Travel Weekly¡·
Posted on: September 18, 2009
This article is from:www.travelweekly.com
Original Link: Century to take on U.S. marketing of its Yangtze itineraries |
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