Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV), the Uk based cruise shipping company that recently acquired Transocean Kreuzfahrten in Germany, said it has taken over of the shore side sales and marketing management of Passat Kreuzfahrten and expansion in the growing German cruise market.
"As part of this strategic alliance, CMV will assume full control and responsibility on 1st April 2014 for the distribution, marketing and commercial shore side management of Passat’s premium rated cruise vessel, Delphin (470pax) and 13,000 capacity year round cruise programme," the company said in a statement.
This development follows the earlier announcement in January of CMV’s take-over of Transocean Kreuzfahrten and Astor’s (600pax) 7,000 summer capacity German programme and 17,000 capacity river cruise programme. The four ship river cruise fleet includes; Belvedere (176pax), Bellefleur (150pax), Bellejour (180pax) and the Sans Souci (80pax) featuring the Rhine, Main, Danube, Mosel, Neckar, Elbe, Oder, Havel, Rhône and Saône rivers.
The Transocean acquisition also included its Munich based ship management unit, whereby the CMV group is no longer a tour operarator but manages both Astor and Marco Polo inhouse. Discovery belongs to All Leisure group, the UK based niche cruise shipping company, that has said it will sell the ship at the end of the 2014 summer season. CMV has not yet stated whether or not the ship will continue with it in 2015.
During the winter season (Nov-May), Astor is operated on the Australian market under the CMV brand home porting in Fremantle (Perth) with a programme capacity of 10,000 passengers.
Christian Verhounig, CEO and Chairman of CMV explains, “This important new alliance with two established cruise lines and popular premium brands will provide valuable synergies, enhanced distribution and competitiveness with coordinated and measured sales initiatives. We will be retaining the existing Offenbach based sales office and the team will be headed up by the highly respected Klaus Ebner as Director of Sales & Marketing”.
Chris Coates, Commercial Director of CMV added, “Germany is now Europe’s fastest growing and highest yield European cruise market and while this expansion has no direct effect on the core and growing 49,000 passenger capacity UK market, this new initiative strengthens the Group’s overall international presence in line with strategic development and growth plans”.
CMV is part of the Global Maritime Group and also operates three other ocean vessels, the Marco Polo (800pax), Discovery (700pax) and Astor (600pax) plus the river vessel, Vienna I (160pax) under the new premium plus Signature River Cruise brand. In 2014, the combined ocean fleet passenger carryings are projected to exceed 70,000 passengers representing almost 100% growth since 2010.
The 16,631gt Delphin that was built in Finland in the mid-1970s is owned by Vishal Cruises Pvt, Ltd and is chartered to Passat Kreuzfahrten Gmbh. It has 237 cabins and carries 470 passengers with a wide range of well appointed public facilities across seven passenger decks and is equipped for worldwide ocean cruising for the premium sector. Destinations include Scandinavia & Russia, the British Isles, Greenland, Iceland and the Arctic Circle, the Mediterranean, South America, Antarctica and Africa. During the summer, Delphin’s dual home ports are Kiel and Bremerhaven in Northern Germany.
