Carnival Cruises is taking a giant step into the Chinese cruise market, creating a new (as yet unnamed) brand and signing contracts to build a number of new ships for it at Chinese shipyards. To get the line started while ships are built, Carnival will re-assign a number of ships from its 10 existing brands.
The Chinese market for cruises is big and growing, and a number of operators, including Royal Caribbean, Princess and Norwegian have begun to base a ship or two there, but this is the first really large-scale commitment by a major cruise line. It's a big enough deal financially and politically that the signing of the contracts (above) was atteneded by British Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinse President Xi Jinping.
The growth of the Chinese market has been so rapid that cruise lines have been diverting new ships there that were originally intended for North American and European markets; it's a good time for ship builders! For more details, from CruiseCritic.com, click HERE
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