Zen Cruises will launch India’s premium cruise line called ‘Jalesh’ on April 17, 2019 in Mumbai with the purchase of its first ship, the Pacific Jewel – a 70,285-ton, 1,900 passenger ship from P&O Australia. Jurgen Bailom, President & CEO, Zen Cruises, says, “She is a beautiful vessel and looks gorgeous. She will be refurbished by March 2019 and and will be christened on April 19, 2019. We are already taking bookings for sailings from Singapore and more guests will join from Colombo after which she will sail up to Mumbai. We already have a loadfactor of 50 per cent. Each sailing can hold up to 1,900 guests. We have so far sold over 50,000 cabins already.”
The company has already started taking bookings for this ship directly via Zen’s website as well as through its sales business partners that have been appointed. “We have already started working with several sales business partners and many more will be added. We want to make it a level-playing field and anyone can become our partner. There are many cruise veterans in the business and we have given pre-allocations. We plan to sell approximately 100,000 cabins in 2019 and are very happy with the results so far. The cruise market in India is so big that there is space for many more cruise lines,” Bailom adds.