Alan Lam reporting

Pullmantur Cruises, the Spain and Latin America focused brand of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., has just published its 2016-17 winter Caribbean programme on board its two ships, Zenith and Monarch.

For the 2016-17 season the line will offer a new “Caribbean Islands” (Islas del Caribe) itinerary on Zenith, touted as the “only East Caribbean itinerary with Latin American ambience”. The first departure is planned for 23 December 2016 from Santo Domingo, calling at La Romana, St Maarten, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados.

The Monarch, Pullmantur’s flagship, will set sail on 4 November 2016 on the “Caribbean Legend” (Caribe Legendario) itinerary, visiting Puerto Limón (Costa Rice), Colón (Panamá), Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), Jamaica and Grand Cayman.

The company operates in the south, east and west of Caribbean. It uses Cartagena de Indias, Colón and Santo Domingo as its principal ports of embarkation.

Despite its recent refocus on Spain, Pullmantur still see Latin America as crucial to its future expansion. Nearly half of its customers are sourced from this vast region.

Latin America, according to Jorge Vilches, President of Pullmantur, represents “a significant weight” (un peso muy significativo) in its strategy and the company is “very satisfied” (muy satisfecha) with the recent evolution in this market. Vilches also stated that there were challenges in this region the company needed to confront; more investment and hard work were needed.