Royal Caribbean entered into a new multimillion-dollar marketing partnership with Changi Airport Group and Singapore Tourism Board to promote fly-cruises. The 5-year tripartite collaboration, which is the longest ever, is due to bring around 623,000 international fly-cruise tourists to Singapore, and generate more than S$430 million in tourism receipts between end-2019-2024.
The announcement of the partnership is in tandem with the news of Royal Caribbean’s 5-year Quantum Class deployment in Singapore, including Quantum of the Seas, one of the largest and most revolutionary cruise ships in Asia.
To start with the partnership, Quantum of the Seas emerges from her multimillion-dollar refurbishment for the 6-month homeporting season in Singapore – the longest ever Singapore deployment for a Quantum Class cruise ship for Royal Caribbean – which is expected to add about 150,000 overseas and local passengers to the local cruising market.
The 5-year partnership is due to generate at least 60% higher tourism receipts in comparison with the previous partnerships combined. The first partnership which ran from 2015 through 2018 to market Mariner of the Seas, was followed by another 3-year partnership launched in 2017 for Voyager of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas. Both partnerships generated S$260 million.
The partnership promises a huge economic impact on Singapore. It is reinforced by the positive outlook for Asia's cruise tourism, where the number of cruisers sailing in Southeast Asia is due to growing at 4.6% to 6.4% per annum to reach up to an estimated 4.5M passengers by 2035. The new partnership will target key regional markets including India, Malaysia, and Indonesia as well as long-haul markets like the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.
From December 1, 2019, Royal Caribbean passengers from China will enjoy this seamless transfer service as part of the new fly-cruise travel packages for sailing from Singapore.