Thomson Cruises has received a lukewarm response from the travel trade to its plans to rebrand as Marella Cruises later this month.
The cruise line announced the rebrand last night at this year’s ABTA Convention in the Azores, when it also announced plans to add new destinations – to the Middle East, Far East and India – for winter 2018/19.
The move comes at the same time as Thomson changes to TUI later this month, and agents were quick to question why the cruise division didn’t stick to the TUI brand.
Posting their views on the Facebook forum Travel Gossip, agents said it seemed a ‘random’ choice.
One agent said it was a ‘complete exercise in futility, wasting money and resourses on what could be spent…erm I dont know…improving their product’.
Another said: "Tui cruises would have made more sense! Who comes up with these ideas!" and another commented: "What a weird name. Why not Tui Cruises??"
Thomson had already started attaching the TUI name to its cruise ships, starting with the launch of TUI Discovery last year.
Marella is also the name of a women’s clothing line, launched in 1976 and part of the Max Mara Group.
Thomson said the word Marella, which means ‘shining sea’ in Celtic, was chosen by customers and reflected its ‘spirit of exploration and discovery’.
The rebranded line will have new additions to the fleet, such as Marella Explorer, which joins next year.
To celebrate the launch of Marella Cruises, the company has unveiled new itineraries across Asia as part of its winter 2018 programme.
The newly-renamed Marella Discovery will sail to 18 new ports of call on 14 new adult-only itineraries, including Colours of the Far East, departing from Bangkok and Enchanting Far East, setting sail from Langkawi in Malaysia.
Marella Discovery’s South East Asian adventure will visit Vietnam, Cambodia and Kuala Lumpur, while it will also sail to India, calling at ports including Mumbai, Mangalore, Mormugao (Goa), Cochin (Kerala) and Colombo (Sri Lanka), and to the Middle East, with highlights including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Muscat.
For the first time in the company’s history, two ships will be based in Barbados for winter 2018.
Marella Explorer will sail its first-ever winter season from the island and will be joined by Marella Celebration.
