West Indies Cruise Line, a niche player, will enter the cruise market tussle in the coming Caribbean season. Alan Lam reports.

Perhaps as a sign of the continuing buoyancy of the Caribbean cruise market, starting 31 July 2015, the newly formed cruise line will offer weekly voyages from Port of Spain on 2- & 5-night voyages to Barbados, Grenada, Isla Margarita, and Tobago, using the 1972-built small cruise vessel Adriana, which only has a capacity of 264 lower berths.

Managed by the London-based Pacific Naval Register, the predominantly Ukrainian-crewed ship flies the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is currently owned by Sergei Ponyatovsky, a Russian businessman who is the president of Inflot Worldwide.

Adriana has been deployed in the Black Sea in the last five years. Owing to the continuing tense geopolitical situation in the region, its operator has been forced to transfer the vessel to the Caribbean.

Interestingly, despite being the ultimate home of ocean cruising, this is the first time a cruise line will be based on a Caribbean island.

According to Henry Yaniz, the president of West Indies Cruise Line, the product will intintially be sold locally in Trinidad, Barbados and Granada. He believes that the demand will be strong, as it operates under the "Caribbean without visa" scheme. By operating exclusively within the Caribbean territories, its customers will not need to apply for US visas in order to start their cruises from Florida.