Norwegian Forms Ties With Alibaba as It Enters the Crowded China Cruise Market


Skift Take

No one disputes that China is a promising market for the cruise industry. But new players can use as much help as they can get reaching customers.
Norwegian Cruise Line is about to become the latest North American operator to station a ship in China, and the Miami-based company is not jumping in on its own. Parent company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced Friday that it was partnering with Chinese commerce giant Alibaba Group to help the cruise line reach customers in the growing market. That agreement comes slightly more than a month before the new 3,883-passenger Norwegian Joy starts sailing from Shanghai at the end of June. How exactly the partnership with the e-commerce company will work and what the arrangement will entail was not clear. The announcement said the two companies would utiliz