Singapore Ship ‘World Dream’ Takes Its Last Cruise to Nowhere

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore will lose one of the two ships offering cruise-to-nowhere trips from the city, after Genting Hong Kong Ltd.'s Dream Cruises said it no longer has the financial capacity to keep the service going, the Straits Times reported.

World Dream will cease operations Wednesday after its final trip, the report said, citing a statement from Genting Hong Kong. The parent company, which had been operating cruises to nowhere in Hong Kong as well as Singapore, filed a petition to wind up its operations in January. Provisional liquidators were appointed last month for Dream Cruises.

Genting Hong Kong's financials deteriorated after the Covid-19 pandemic prompted travel restrictions that have led to restructurings and insolvencies across the global tourism industry. The company reported a net loss of $1.7 billion last May. 

People who have paid deposits for voyages on World Dream will have to submit refund claims to the company, although it's unclear whether they will be reimbursed, the Straits Times report said. 

Singapore's cruises to nowhere started in November 2020, providing a way for residents to travel outside the city even as the pandemic kept borders largely closed. Royal Caribbean International's Quantum of the Seas has been operating a similar service and in total more than 82,000 people had sailed on these ships by early March last year, the Straits Times reported.

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