Cruise line offering Cayo Coco stop

Cruise line offering Cayo Coco stop



CUBA STANDARD — Cuba Cruise Inc., a Calgary-based startup company that

will offer around-Cuba cruises next winter season, is planning to offer

stops at Cayo Coco, according to Website Cuba Intensa.



This is the first time a cruise line makes a stop at the fast-growing

beach resort off the northern coast of Cuba.



Cuba Cruise, started by Toronto entrepreneur Dugald Wells, will use the

960-passenger Louis Cristal. The ship, owned by Cyprus-based Louis

Cruises, will be home-ported in Havana during 15 weekly runs this coming

season from December through March. Other stops of the seven-day cruise

include Punta Francés on the Isle of Youth, Cienfuegos, Montego Bay in

Jamaica, Santiago de Cuba, and Holguín.



The company's marketing is mainly aimed at European tourists. Cuba

Cruises bowed at the ITB tourism fair in Berlin in early March. Prices

start at €437 per double cabin.



Cuba Cruises joins Britain's Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines and Tropicana

Cruises, a London-based startup with links to Russia, in offering

cruises around the island. The cruise industry in Cuba has been hampered

by the fact that the world's largest cruise lines are U.S.-based and

subject to the embargo. At least two European companies that started

offering Cuba cruises were eventually bought by one of the U.S. cruise

giants and pulled out of Cuba. Other small European operators have come

and gone, beset by startup woes.



Source: "Cruise line offering Cayo Coco stop « Cuba Standard, your best

source for Cuban business news" -

http://www.cubastandard.com/2013/06/16/cruise-line-offering-cayo-coco-stop/