Genting Hong Kong-owned Dream Cruises to begin trips from Singapore under the new Resorts World Cruises brand

A vessel that used to be worked by Genting Hong Kong-owned Dream Cruises will sail from Jun 15 under a new organization called Resorts World Cruises.

The organization was set up by Malaysian tycoon Lim Kok Thay, who is chairman and board executive of Genting Group. It was registered on Mar 9, under two months in the wake of Genting Hong Kong’s documented end of the organization after failing to secure funding to pay its debts.

Dream Cruises ran three ships – Genting Dream, Explorer Dream, and World Dream. Resorts World Cruises has taken over Genting Dream and is right now in negotiations with banks and interested parties to gain the other two ships.

World Dream, which worked cruises to no place from Singapore, stopped taking new bookings after its parent organization ran into financial trouble. The boat stopped operations on Mar 2.

Resorts World Cruises said on Wednesday (May 18) that it would offer complimentary cruise credits of “equivalent value” for all paid impacted travelers by World Dream’s cruise cancellations in Singapore between Mar 2 and Aug 31 this year as a “gesture of goodwill”.

The credits will be valid from Jun 15 to end-March 2023.

At a news conference on Wednesday, the organization said this would simply be appropriate to impacted World Dream customers who still can’t seem to get any refund from their original booking source.

“From our records, there were 13,000 (affected) customers but we also understand that many of our customers have got their refund through credit card companies,” said Mr. Michael Goh, president and head of international sales of Resorts World Cruises.

He added that the organization doesn’t have a record of the number of people that have claimed their refunds so far.

NEW COMPANY “NOTHING TO DO” WITH GENTING HONG KONG

Albeit the new organization has taken over the Genting Dream vessel, it keeps up that Resorts World Cruises is separate from Genting Hong Kong.

“The provisional liquidator could not revive the (Dream Cruises) brand and so, we worked with the Chinese lessors who are the owners of the ship and decided to restart the cruise under the Resorts World brand,” said Resorts World Cruises’ CEO and executive director Colin Au, who was formerly deputy CEO of Genting Hong Kong.

“This new brand has got nothing to do with Genting Hong Kong, it’s a new cruise brand,” he added.

Mr. Lim and Mr. Au both resigned as CEO and deputy CEO of Genting Hong Kong respectively in January this year, after the cruise operator filed to end up the business.

Trading of Genting Hong Kong’s shares has been suspended since Jan 18 and will remain so until additional notification.

“Genting Hong Kong is under provisional liquidation, and (Mr Lim) is not joining any of the companies under provisional liquidation. This is a new cruise liner that is being set up,” Mr. Au reiterated when asked about Mr. Lim’s role in the new company.

Mr. Lim, who is the executive chairman of Resorts World Cruises, holds shares in the new organization, said, Mr. Au.

“There are many parties who would like to join the company and there are negotiations with them, and so this will be a work in progress in the next couple of weeks,” said Mr. Au, adding that this should be finalized “in the next few weeks”.

LAUNCH OF NEW CRUISE IS IN “EVERYBODY’S OBJECTIVE”

At the point when asked about the timing of the launch of the new boat, which will come around a half year after Genting Hong Kong filed to wrap up its business, Mr. Au said it was in “everybody’s objective to go back to normal … as fast as possible” to protect jobs and to assist the economy with developing.

An organization representative said it has re-employed around 1,700 of its former employees situated in Singapore. This involves 1,600 former crew members from Genting Dream and around 70 former employees from its Singapore office.

In March, The Straits Times revealed that somewhere around 60 employees from Genting Hong Kong’s Singapore office had been laid off, with no retrenchment benefits.

At the point when asked about the remuneration packages for re-employed staff members, Mr. Goh said this would be “based on experience” and didn’t unveil further details.

Mr. Au said the launch of the new cruise will likewise assist with giving the Singapore Cruise Center more revenue.

Noticing a strong market appetite for cruises in the region, including Thailand, Malaysia, and India, Mr. Goh expressed certainty that Resorts World Cruises will want to fulfill demand.