Norwegian Cruise Line, the contemporary market unit of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), is likely to bring forward the decision whether or not it will base a vessel in China from Spring 2016, said Frank del Rio, NCLH President and CEO.

“Our Skunk Works team has substantially completed its assessment of entering the China-sourced market with a dedicated vessel perhaps as early as 2017. Our original expectations, if you recall, were to announce a go – no-go decision by spring 2016,” del Rio said in a conference call on Tuesday.

“However, given the significant progress made to-date, we now expect an announcement to come sooner than we had initially anticipated,” he noted

He said Norwegian would  continue to evaluate the opportunity to offer Asian-centric product geared toward consumers in the region, particularly those in China.

We have the benefit of learning from the industry's initial entry into the market and are building our intelligence and crafting a strategy for the best way to enter the market.