How has the current economic climate affected the cruising business in Singapore?
Generally the cruise industry is known as being recession resistant; however it does not mean it is recession proof. Though we had not exactly felt the impact from the economic crisis towards the end of 2008 when the crisis hit, we are likely to feel the impact in the coming 2009/ 2010 cruise season. Typically cruises are booked well in advance and some consumer bookings for 2009/ 2010 cruises would have started before September 2008 when the crisis hit, although growing trends show bookings are now done nearer to the sailing date. This could explain why there had not been any significant drop in the number of passengers and calls. In fact for the first three months of 2009, we saw an increase of 10 per cent over the same period last year. As a result of the industry’s practice of planning at least two years ahead for their itineraries, we have also not seen any cancellation for berths booked before the crisis. Hence, the extent of the impact is hard to tell at this moment as we are su
