Festival Cruises is luring an ever-growing number of vacationers, the company says

Madrid._ European company Festival Cruises is hoping to take as many as 37,500 passengers to the seven seas this year, a considerable increase from the 1,700 travelers transported by the megabuck firm in 1999, that this time up will churn out business benefits for 6 billion euros, including commissions of up to 37%, Santiago Labrador, Festival’s executive president for Spain, Portugal and Latin America said.

Festival is mainly zeroing in on Europe where it has scored it major hits and has managed to offer the public a wider range of choices than those back in the year 2000 when Mr. Labrador joined the company’s presidency.

An all-out European style with top-quality service, the finest cuisine and cultural plurality –without downplaying the Latin style- has been the key to success for Festival.

Latin America also stands for an important market with strongholds in Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Cuba –now featuring the Caribe cruise all year round- as well as Venezuela and Colombia both with highly promising projections, according to the company’s new marketing director and Latin American expert, Olga Cebrian.

The construction of two still-unnamed 3,000-passenger vessels scheduled to take their maiden voyages in 2005 and 2006 are high on the list of future projects, coupled with other potentials like Congress and Incentive Cruises and Theme Cruises –the latter to a lesser degree- two options Festival has tried its hand at before.