AUSTRALIAN cruise operator P&O Cruises today announced it will return to Singapore to offer four roundtrip voyages as part of its 2015/2016 programme.
The Singapore season will take travellers to destinations in Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia and see the cruise line’s maiden calls to Krabi, Sabang (Palau Weh), Koh Chang and Sihanoukville.
Pacific Eden, which joins P&O under a recent fleet expansion initiative, will operate the Singapore cruises. It is slated to arrive in Singapore in July 2016.
Ann Sherry, CEO, P&O Cruises, said that the cruise operator’s fleet expansion has allowed it to sail out to more destinations including Asia, and that its Singapore-based itineraries were a sign of the maturing of the Australian market, also the world’s fastest-growing cruise market.
“Last year, nearly 834,000 Australians took a cruise holiday, 20 per cent more than in 2012, and many of these are people who have cruised before and are now keen for new destinations and new cultural experiences,” she said.
“As growth in the fly-cruise segment shows, an increasing number of passengers are prepared to travel internationally to begin their cruise and P&O Cruises is responding to this market opportunity.”
The Singapore season will include a seven-night South-east Asia western itinerary to the Malaysian and Thai towns of Sabang, Phuket, Krabi and Langkawi; a seven-night South-east Asia eastern itinerary visiting Sihanoukville in Cambodia and Koh Chang, Bangkok (Laem Chabang) and Koh Samui; and a 13-night itinerary from Singapore to Cairns, with a call to Dili in Timor-Leste, Indonesia and Darwin.
P&O last offered roundtrip cruises from Singapore in 2006.
