Atlantic Alliance concept succeeded

Hamburg. Last Saturday AIDA Cruises' newest cruise ship - the "AIDAblu" - said goodbye to her home port Hamburg and will return in August. During the first quarter of the year 2010 the "AIDAblu" set out on a total of nine cruises along the Atlantic west coast to visit the ports of the "Atlantic Alliance - Europe's Prime Cruise Destinations".

The "Atlantic Alliance" is a marketing project initiated by the Hamburg Cruise Center two years ago, with the objective of advertising the region from Hamburg to Lisbon along the Atlantic west coast to shipping lines as a new cruise area. With the mutual understanding that each port is only one element of the ‘cruise' product and that cruise lines are constantly searching for new cruise destinations, a total of 17 ports are today participating in the project. The "Atlantic Alliance" demonstrates to cruise lines that there is a new alternative to established destinations such as, for example, the Mediterranean or the Baltic Sea. "We are pleased that AIDA Cruises is the first cruise line to take up the concept of the "Atlantic Alliance - Europe's Prime Cruise Destinations" Gerd Drossel, Managing Director of Hamburg Cruise Center, stated. The "AIDAblu" itineraries contained the ports of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Le Havre and Dover.

"The Atlantic Alliance is a perfect example of how an innovative idea can be packaged and marketed as a new product. What could be more exciting than visiting these fantastic Western European capitals with a cruise ship?" Michael Ungerer, Senior Vice President Operations AIDA Cruises, underlined. All the cruises of the "AIDAblu" in the past three months have been fully booked; the demand has been higher than the offer.

Drossel is convinced "that the "Atlantic Alliance" cruise region has great potential to develop itself from what has previously been known as a transit route to a stand-alone destination."