Announcing Dream Cruises just under a year ago, Genting Hong Kong will take delivery of the Genting Dream in mid-October and usher in a new brand starting revenue service in the Pearl River Delta in November with a premium cruise product on a new 150,000-ton ship. 

Genting has added brand-specific executives for Dream and the product experience, but is also relying on existing infrastructure and operational support from its Star Cruises operation. 

“Obviously there is a core group of colleagues at Genting Hong Kong that are shared services,” said Thatcher Brown, president, Dream Cruises, noting procurement, human resources, IT, marine and entertainment departments being synergized and shared between Star and Dream Cruises.

“When we look at how we are in the stages of launching a new brand and also maintaining and growing an existing brand, our philosophy is that it is best to incubate the new brand with a core team of brand developers and marketers,” said Brown. “It’s a new brand and we need to get it right the first time.”

“When you’re creating a brand it is so important to keep the integrity of the brand protected,” Brown told Cruise Industry News. 

In an earlier presentation at China Cruise Shipping, Brown said one key demographic target was groups of seven passengers. Those groups being made up of two sets of grandparents, a mother and father, typically born in the 1980s, and a single child.

There is also a quickly growing Chinese affluent market, according to Brown, who said that by 2020 the number of affluent householders in China should double to 100 million.