Resorts World Cruises (RWC), the new cruise line recently launched by Genting Group patriarch Lim Kok Thay, has announced plans to expand its reach with sailings to Malaysia and Indonesia to begin from 1 July.
It will also start sailing to other destinations such as Phuket and Krabi in Thailand and to Bali from October, according to President Michael Goh.
The expanded schedule comes less than two months after Lim first registered the Resorts World Cruises brand and just three weeks after announcing that first sailings would commence out of Singapore from 15 June.
Annie Chang, Director for Cruises at the Singapore Tourism Board, said the expanded offering provided more options for travelers.
“We are delighted that Resorts World Cruises has added destinations to its cruises as more ports in the region reopen,” she said. “STB will continue to work closely with our regional counterparts to re-open more ports and re-invigorate the cruise industry in Southeast Asia.”
The launch of Resorts World Cruises has piqued the interest of the industry given that Lim’s former cruise ship firm Genting Hong Kong only recently filed a winding up petition earlier this year after failing to secure funding needed to meet its financial obligations. The new venture has already confirmed it will use Genting Dream, a ship previously owned and operated by Genting Hong Kong subsidiary Dream Cruises, for its initial sailings and is in negotiations to acquire the other two ships previously operated by Dream Cruises, World Dream and Explore Dream.
Goh himself was former President at Dream Cruises while CEO and Executive Director Colin Au was also previously Deputy CEO of Genting Hong Kong.
As previously reported by IAG, the Resorts World Cruises brand was incorporated on 9 March with an entity called Two Trees Family Holdings listed as its shareholder. Two Trees, itself incorporated in March 2021, lists Lim, his son Lim Keong Hui and Gerard Lim Ewe Keng as directors.
Lim, who personally owns 75% of Genting Hong Kong, stepped down as the company’s Chairman and CEO in late January, however Bloomberg reported in mid-February that Lim was one of several investors to have expressed interest in purchasing Global Dream – an unfinished cruise ship currently sitting dormant at Genting Hong Kong’s bankrupt shipbuilding yard in Germany.
Measuring 342 meters in length, Global Dream had promised to be the world’s largest cruise liner by passenger capacity before construction ground to a halt in January when the shipyards filed for insolvency.
Provisional liquidators were appointed to Genting Hong Kong due to debts totalling almost US$2.8 billion. The company had only last year finalized a series of agreements with those creditors for the granting new loans and extensions to maturities, however it defaulted in January when unable to access US$88 million in funding from the German government.
