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Star Cruises blames recession for halting Taiwan operations

Star Cruises (麗星遊輪), Asia's largest cruise line, suspended its operations in Taiwan yesterday as the economic recession continued to reduce the number of its passengers.

The 28,000-ton SuperStar Taurus sailed from Keelung Port to Malaysia, the main base of Star Cruises, but the company's Taiwan office will not close, a company spokeswoman said.

"We will continue to organize tours to fly to other countries to get on Star Cruises voyages," Star Cruises' Taiwan marketing manager Li Pei (李佩) said.

Li said Star Cruises suspended its Taiwan operations due to the fallen number of passengers caused by recession.

"The other reason is that winter is coming and winter is the off-season for us," she said.

Star Cruises is to decide next year whether or not to continue operations in Taiwan, the spokeswoman said.

Star Cruises entered the Taiwan market in 1998, offering overseas and offshore voyages from Keelung Port in north Taiwan.

The voyages included four-day, three-night trips to Naha, capital city of Japan's Okinawa island prefecture; three-day, two-night trips to Japan's Ishikaki islet, and two-day, one-night trips along Taiwan's east coast.

The line has used four cruise ships -- Super Capricorn, Super Leo, Norwegian Star and SuperStar Taurus.

Since 1998, 300,000 Taiwanese have boarded Star Cruises ships.

Attracted by Taiwan's growing tourism market, Star Cruises applied last spring to build a four-storey terminal building at Keelung Harbor to serve as its North Asia operations base.

The plan never materialized as Taiwan's economy began to deteriorate and the number of passengers began to drop.

Star Cruises is the third-largest cruise line in the world. It has 20 ships sailing to destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, North and South America, Caribbean, Alaska, Europe, Mediterranean, Bermuda and Antarctica.
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