Genting Cruise Lines on Wednesday, December 22, achieved a new milestone with the Star Cruises brand as the Star Pisces ship set sail on her first journey from Georgetown (Penang Island, Malaysia) after a long period of hiatus due to the COVID crisis, marking the start of the recovery of the cruise and travel industry.
As the first voyage operating under the new safety measures in Malaysia, embarking passengers were introduced to enhanced precautionary measures. These include the requirement for all passengers and crew members to be fully vaccinated and undergo a series of health screenings with the ship operating at 50% of the guest capacity.
Madam Cynthia Lee, Vice President of Sales, Genting Cruise Lines said they were off to a positive and exciting start as they kicked off the first sailing with Star Pisces from Penang, introducing new options for Malaysians, including the 1-night "Straits of Malacca" and the 2-night "Langkawi Escape" cruise.
"We are taking the necessary steps to educate consumers on how cruising have evolved to operate in a new norm with layers of safety measures and the application of new safety equipment, making it one of the safest way to travel and enjoy a vacation."
Genting Cruise Lines is in discussion with the authorities from different countries, including Malaysia, in order to develop ‘Harmonize Cruising Standards’ for the region.
This is expected to create new opportunities to open international cruising in a safe manner across the participating countries like creating Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) for passengers. It will also enable Genting to spur the growth of tourism with the re-introduction of inbound travelers to Malaysia from its ships homeported in neighboring countries and via the expansion of new itineraries in Malaysia and the region like to Belawan-Medan (Sumatra Indonesia) and Phuket (Thailand) in the near future.