Cruise & Maritime Voyages today announced it will deploy the Magellan to the Mexican Riviera for the winter 2019 cruise season, launching a new brand for the Mexican domestic market: Cruceros Marítimos Vacacionales.

The ship will begin operations on a week-long cruise program on Feb. 3, 2019, sailing through the end of March 2019, and homeporting in both Acapulco and Manzanillo. The voyages will also be marketed internationally, the company said.

Christian Verhounig, CEO, explained, “CMV specializes in the development of dedicated source markets having successfully established markets and programs in the UK & Ireland, Germany, Australia and France. CMV will currently be the only exclusive Mexican cruise product available on the domestic leisure market. The Mexican market offers great potential and we plan to extend the season in 2020. This exciting new initiative is part of the Group’s continued strategic international development plan in achieving our longer-term growth objectives”.

The itinerary will include calls to Manzanillo and Cabo San Lucas in the Baja California peninsula plus two days at sea.

Acapulco will be the primary gateway port serving the region of Guerrero and Mexico City.

Other transit calls include both Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.

John Dennis, Vice President Sales & Marketing of the CMV North American Fort Lauderdale-based sales office, will assume responsibility for the commercial management and business development of the Mexican operation with a maiden season capacity of 12,000 passengers, the company said. 

John Dennis explained: “Following extensive development work over the past year which has involved numerous visits and meetings with many of the key stakeholders and Government officials, I am delighted that the Board have sanctioned this exciting and ground breaking new venture. We will be opening a dedicated sales office in Mexico City and officially launching Cruceros Marítimos Vacacionales and the debut 2019 Magellan program during Q1-2018 with big trade launch events planned in Mexico City, Acapulco, Guadalajara and Mazatlan, at the 2018 “Tianguis Turistico” the most important event of the tourism sector in Mexico.

“The marketing strategy will include national consumer press and on line digital campaigns backed up by a strong PR and social media presence and the appointment of key trade partners supported by cooperative promotions. A dedicated Spanish language brochure, website and online booking facility will be unveiled during the launch.”  

Chris Coates, Group Commercial Director, added, “With the recent growth of domestic tourism in Mexico we firmly believe that the market conditions are now suited to the launch of an authentic Mexican cruise product, multi-resort and vacation experience. The product will be very much tailored to Mexican tastes and aspirations. We believe that Magellan’s quality, size, bed configuration makes her ideally suited to this business with the focus very much on the domestic home market and developing a product for Mexico.”