On Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at 8.00 p.m., the cry of “cast off” went up for AIDAcara as she set out from Hamburg on AIDA Cruises’ very first world cruise. The 116-day cruise around the world will take her, over the course of 116 days until February 10, 2018, to 41 ports in 23 countries

Hurricane Irma, much like its predecessor Hurricane Harvey, has sent shipping into disarray, particularly for cruise passengers. Around 40,000 holiday makers are estimated to have been affected by disruption to scheduled cruises this week and this figure could rise further as Irma speeds through the Caribbean towards southern Florida. The hurricane has already devastated areas

WeChat is an integrated lifestyle-changing platform for instant messaging, commerce and payment services from Tencent, the world 8th largest public company with more than 400 billion market value. As of Q2’17, there are over 963 million monthly active users on WeChat/Weixin. Costa Cruises launched the first Mini Program to book and pay for a cruise

Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest leisure travel company, will be holding a virtual keel laying ceremony for the next generation of LNG Cruise ships. The ceremony will take place on Wednesday 6 September 2017 from 12:15-12:45 hrs at Hamburg Messe und Congress as part of the Seatrade Europe Cruise & River Cruise Convention conference opening

Four major international trade associations – BIMCO, INTERCARGO, International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and INTERTANKO – have made a joint proposal to the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) concerning ambitious CO2 reductions by the international shipping sector, which is responsible for transporting about 90% of global trade and 2.2% of the world’s annual man-made CO2

The second edition of The Guidelines on Cyber Security Onboard Ships has been released. The latest practical advice has been compiled by the joint industry group, which is led by BIMCO and now includes new members OCIMF and IUMI, as well as the original contributors CLIA, ICS, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO. The second edition includes information

European Transport Ministers adopted today conclusions on the priorities for the EU’s maritime transport policy until 2020. The conclusions endorse the content of the so-called “Valletta Declaration” adopted at the informal ministerial conference organised by the Maltese Presidency end of March. “With the current EU strategy for maritime transport policy 2009-2018 coming to an end

Revised safety requirements to ensure new-build passenger ships remain afloat after a major incident are among a set of amendments set for adoption by IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC), which meets from 7-16 June. The revisions to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) chapter II-1, relating to subdivision and damage

Less than two months after the MOL Triumph earned the title of the world’s largest containership by carrying capacity as the first ship to cross the 20,000 TEU mark, a new Ultra Large Container Vessel (ULCV) is already boasting the ability to transport more than 21,000 twenty-foot containers as the world’s largest shipping companies compete to expand their