KLANG, 23 November 2015: Mein Schiff 1, a Century class cruise ship, owned and operated by TUI Cruises, made her maiden call today to Boustead Cruise Centre (BCC), Pulau Indah, at 0800 hrs.

The vessel, which sailed from Langkawi on 22 November, arrived with a total of 1870 passengers and 909 crew members. They received a warm welcome reception from Tourism Malaysia with bunga telur and cultural performance by Jabatan Kesenian Negeri Selangor, as well as musical performance by the Balle-Balle group.

As part of the cruise ship’s 22-night voyage from Dubai to Singapore, she had earlier made a stopover at Muscat, Oman; followed by Mumbai, India; and Colombo, Sri Lanka. The vessel will leave Klang at 1800 this evening and heads to Singapore.

The welcome reception by Tourism Malaysia is an effort under its Maiden Call programme, an annual activity to welcome ships berthing for the first time in Malaysia. It is part of Tourism Malaysia’s efforts to promote cruise tourism and to attract more ship operators to berth in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, in particular.

Laid down at the Meyer Werth shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, on 25 May 1995, the vessel measured 259.70 m in length and a passenger capacity of 1,870 (lower berths) and 2,681 (all berths). Having originally served with Celebrity Cruises in 1996, and later renamed Celebrity Galaxy in 2008, she was transferred to the fleet of TUI Cruises in 2009. Mein Schiff 1 offers a wide range of entertainment, leisure, and sport amenities, which makes every sailing an enjoyable and memorable experience for both adults and senior citizens.

Over the last few years, Malaysia has seen an encouraging number of cruise ships calling at the country’s ports. Last year, a total of 421 international cruise ships with 352,322 passengers called at the country’s six primary ports, namely Port Klang, Penang, Melaka, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. From January to May this year, a total of 268 international cruise ships called. For the same period, the country received 247,624 cruise passengers.

Developing cruise tourism has been outlined in the Tourism National Key Economic Area (NKEA), under its sixth Entry Point Project (EPP) – Creating a Straits Riviera Cruise Playground. In an effort to capitalise on an international cruise passenger market that has grown at an average of 14% annually in the past 10 years, this EPP will see the development of a Straits Riviera, comprising the six primary ports and other secondary ports.

Tourism Malaysia’s Deputy Director General (Advertising & Digital) Dato’ Abdul Khani Daud (right)

welcoming the passengers of the luxury cruise ship Mein Schiff 1