Mein Schiff 1 is a prestigious century-class cruise ship owned and operated by TUI Cruises. The cruise boasts of a colourful history having been laid down in 1995 at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. Subsequently, she entered service under the Celebrity Cruises flag on 21 December 1996. She was renamed Mein Shiff 1 in 2009, which loosely translates to “my ship” in English.
Aitken Spence Travels was successful in convincing the TUI Cruises management to include Destination Sri Lanka in their itinerary last year and the ship called in on their third journey to the Colombo Port recently.
On this voyage to Colombo, the cruise ship carried 1,800 German luxury travellers aboard and concluded the trip with positive feedback and great reviews in which Aitken Spence Travels was praised by both the travellers and the cruise staff for the high quality professional service provided.
Challenging the conventional pattern of low participation in on-shore excursions, more than 85 % of passengers of this voyage participated in the exclusively picked excursions offered by Aitken Spence Travels. Aitken Spence Travels tailors its tours and excursions to suit its advanced contemporary travellers, and many of the excursions offered are exclusively provided by Aitken Spence Travels.
“The successful operation we had recently has proved to be a major push for the tourism industry of the country as a whole. We are expecting TUI to increase the frequency of calls to Sri Lanka in the future considering the large fleet of luxury cruises they have in hand,” commented Prasanjith Perera, Vice President, AST.
Aitken Spence Travels will be extending their hands to welcome Mein Schiff 1 again to Colombo next year as well, maintaining the company’s dominance in the cruise business.
Sri Lanka Travel Feneteko