Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Yoga project opens luxury cruise vista in Asia-Pacific
Shanti Devi, a 70-year-old Indian housewife, feels her life has changed on her first foreign trip - a luxury cruise on the South China sea combining tourism with yoga.
She says yoga guru Ramdev's easy breathing exercises have restored her energy and she is equally thankful to Star Cruises, which has made the ‘Yoga on Sea' project possible.
After spending an entire day shopping in this boomtown - San ya City means 'twilight' - Shanti Devi heads for a gala dinner on Superstar Virgo, one of the world's biggest luxury liners cruising off the Chinese coast.
The yoga and Vedic lifestyle cruise on board the Superstar Virgo has been organized by the Hardwar Patanjali Yogpeeth (co-founded by Ramdev) and the Kolkata-based Vishwa Jagriti Mission.
For Star Cruises, it is one of the biggest ‘special interest cruises' with a group of 1,062 people from different countries on board for the Indian yoga tour.
"We have been developing the special interest cruise segment for the past three years. The first benefit of our efforts was seen last year when more than 260 people boarded Superstar Virgo for a seven-day spiritual discourse. ‘Yoga on Sea' is a feather in our cap," Sumit Banerji, senior marketing and sales manager in charge of northern and eastern India and Nepal, Star Cruises, told IANS.
Star Cruises, is building its brand in India. Its target audience is the family segment in the tier two and the tier three Indian cities, which are witnessing an economic boom post-globalization and more foreign travel.
According to Star Cruises officials, one of the major components of their new ‘special interest tourism projects' is health and spiritual cruises like the ongoing five-day ‘Yoga on Sea'.
Star Cruises, set up in September 1993 to make the Asia-Pacific coast an international cruise destination, has seen exponential growth in two core segments in India - the family holiday sector and Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition (MICE) tourism - since last year.
"We are trying to grow as a leading brand in the family segment, without removing our focus from business travel. The special interest cruises fall under the family segment which has always been our priority in India," Banerji said.
An estimate by the Pacific-Asia Travel Association (PATA) says nearly eight million Indians travel abroad every year and outbound travel from India has been growing at 10.15 percent every year since 2001.
International tour operators put the outbound tourism boom to rapid economic growth, competitive pricing, new airports in urban heartlands, air liberalization which facilitates connectivity, and the rise of the Indian middle class.
To read the full article. click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
She says yoga guru Ramdev's easy breathing exercises have restored her energy and she is equally thankful to Star Cruises, which has made the ‘Yoga on Sea' project possible.
After spending an entire day shopping in this boomtown - San ya City means 'twilight' - Shanti Devi heads for a gala dinner on Superstar Virgo, one of the world's biggest luxury liners cruising off the Chinese coast.
The yoga and Vedic lifestyle cruise on board the Superstar Virgo has been organized by the Hardwar Patanjali Yogpeeth (co-founded by Ramdev) and the Kolkata-based Vishwa Jagriti Mission.
For Star Cruises, it is one of the biggest ‘special interest cruises' with a group of 1,062 people from different countries on board for the Indian yoga tour.
"We have been developing the special interest cruise segment for the past three years. The first benefit of our efforts was seen last year when more than 260 people boarded Superstar Virgo for a seven-day spiritual discourse. ‘Yoga on Sea' is a feather in our cap," Sumit Banerji, senior marketing and sales manager in charge of northern and eastern India and Nepal, Star Cruises, told IANS.
Star Cruises, is building its brand in India. Its target audience is the family segment in the tier two and the tier three Indian cities, which are witnessing an economic boom post-globalization and more foreign travel.
According to Star Cruises officials, one of the major components of their new ‘special interest tourism projects' is health and spiritual cruises like the ongoing five-day ‘Yoga on Sea'.
Star Cruises, set up in September 1993 to make the Asia-Pacific coast an international cruise destination, has seen exponential growth in two core segments in India - the family holiday sector and Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition (MICE) tourism - since last year.
"We are trying to grow as a leading brand in the family segment, without removing our focus from business travel. The special interest cruises fall under the family segment which has always been our priority in India," Banerji said.
An estimate by the Pacific-Asia Travel Association (PATA) says nearly eight million Indians travel abroad every year and outbound travel from India has been growing at 10.15 percent every year since 2001.
International tour operators put the outbound tourism boom to rapid economic growth, competitive pricing, new airports in urban heartlands, air liberalization which facilitates connectivity, and the rise of the Indian middle class.
To read the full article. click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Labels: Asia-Pacific coast, PATA, san ya city, Shanti Devi, South China sea, Star Cruises, tourism, Yoga, Yoga Guru Ramdev
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