AIDADIVA, one of eight ships operated by AIDA Cruises, made its inaugural call to Singapore on Wednesday, with approximately 2,000 passengers on board.
AIDAdiva docked in Singapore for eight hours before sailing on to Ho Chi Minh City and Laem Chabang in Chonburi province, Thailand. The ship is scheduled for a turnaround in Singapore on December 5, and will make a total of nine return calls till March next year.
About 95 per cent of the passengers on AIDAdiva are from Germany, with the remainder coming from other German-speaking markets such as Austria and Switzerland. The passengers are around 54 years old on average.
The 2,500-pax AIDAdiva is the third AIDA ship to call at Singapore in the last three years, and the largest by far. AIDA cruises deployed the 1,300-pax AIDAaura and 1,200-pax AIDAcara in Asian waters in 2010/2011 and 2009/2010, respectively.
Christina Siaw, CEO of Singapore Cruise Centre, welcomed the capacity hike by AIDA to the region, but emphasised that “there was a need to create awareness among travel professionals as well as consumers about the cruise ships and brands that call into Singapore”.
Meanwhile, AIDA signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in August for the construction of two 3,250-pax ships.
The ships are scheduled for delivery in March 2015 and March 2016, but there are no indications at press time where they will be mobilised.
