Costa Cruises ties up with Worldlink to offer guests Italy at sea

Costa Cruises, one of the leading and most luxurious cruise companies in the world has appointed Worldlink Air Services (Pvt) Ltd a member of the Worldlink Travel Group as their agent in Sri Lanka to market Costa’s global cruises in Sri Lanka.

Costa which has a fleet of 26 luxury cruise ships carried over 2.3million guests in 2011 and have been Europe’s number one cruise company for several years. Costa has sailings in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, The Baltic Sea, The Caribbean, Central America, South America, the United Arab Emirates, and the Far East.

“Worldlink is pleased to partner Costa to offer ‘Italy at Sea’ to the Sri Lankan market.  Costa is a world famous brand and I am confident that many Sri Lankans will cruise with Costa in the near future,” Worldlink Travel Group Chairman Ahintha Amerasinghe said. “Worldlink has been a pioneer in marketing cruises in Sri Lanka being the partner in Sri Lanka for Princess Cruises, Cunard Lines and P&O Cruises for over 10 years.”

Worldlink Travel Group is a leading company in the travel industry in Sri Lanka having been in the business since 1991. The group consists of seven different companies each serving the travel needs of a niche segment.  Worldlink Travel, the flagship company is a leading corporate travel agency. Dream Holidays handles the out bound tours for both individuals and large groups, while Worldlink Tours looks after the inbound segment, and Worldlink Air Services the agency representation company in addition to the cruises companies is the general sales agent for South African Airways in Sri Lanka for over 16 years.

Worldlink who entered the hotel industry recently with the opening of the small luxury hotel – The Amaara Sky Hotel in Kandy, plans to open a chain of hotels under the Amaara brand in the future.

“The corporate incentive groups are a growing segment in Sri Lanka and Dream Holidays has been one the leading companies who have taken many corporate groups to various parts of the world.  Costa Cruises is going have 11, 4, and 3 night sailings out of Singapore during the months of May and June this year,” Worldlink General Manager Ramain Niyangoda  who will be directly in charge of selling Costa in Sri Lanka said.

Niyangoda added that the plan is to offer a special promotional rate of Rs.70,000 for a three night cruise that will include the air ticket for the Colombo-Singapore-Colombo route.  “The Costa Atlantica that will sail out of Singapore is a super luxury cruise ship and hence the package will be of real value for corporate incentive groups.”

Costa offers a range of cruises from three days to over three months and the short cruises will be ideal for Sri Lankans travelling to Europe and who would like to go on a three or four day cruise out of a port in Europe.

Costa offers four categories of cabins on board the ships - The Classic, The Premium, The Samsara, and the Suites.  One of the most interesting cruises on offer is the seven night Baltic which starts from Copenhagen and stops in Tailin in Estonia, St Petersburg in Russia, Helsinki in Poland, and Stockholm in Sweden.  “These sailings are in May, June July and August.  We are going to tie up with an airline to offer a special group fare for the Baltic cruise,” Niyangoda said.

“We have been getting many inquiries from our clients asking for cruises of short duration. Therefore we thought Costa would be the ideal partner for us.  Singapore being just three hours away and having four flights per day is a very popular holiday destination for Sri Lankans.  Hence we are now offering them an option to cruise out of Singapore on one of the best cruises in the world.  Costa offers a promotion where parents can keep up to two children less than 18 years of age free of charge in the cabin.  This will be a huge PLUS points for families to sail with Costa,” Worldlink Travel Group Director Operations Gerard Amerasinghe added.