Cruise and Ferry Review - Summer/Spring 2020

8 6 INTERV IEW Dream job Michael Goh has taken the top job at Dream Cruises as it begins a period of expansion facilitated by its parent company’s German shipyards. Anthony Pearce finds out more T hese are indeed exciting times for Dream Cruises and I feel deeply honoured to be entrusted to lead and take this journey together with my fellow colleagues in growing the Dream Cruises brand in Asia and beyond,” says Michael Goh, the new president of Dream Cruises and head of international sales at Genting Cruise Lines. Based in Singapore, Goh reports to Kent Zhu, president of Genting Cruise Lines, the operator that counts Dream Cruises, Crystal Cruises and Star Cruises among its brands. Its parent company, Genting Hong Kong, also operates Resorts World Manila and the MV Werften shipyards in Germany, which will build new ships for Dream Cruises. Goh takes the helm at an exciting time for the line, which is aimed at the Asian market, saying that the line began “its global aspirations in 2019, sailing beyond Asia for the very first time with our pathfinder ship, Explorer Dream, in Australia and New Zealand.” “I’m looking forward to the new possibilities and opportunities as we create new milestones in driving the growth of the Dream Cruises brand through our expanding fleet, extensive unique offerings and wider footprint beyond Asia,” he adds. Goh notes that Dream Cruises has launched three ships since introducing its first, Genting Dream, in November 2016. World Dream debuted in November 2017 and Explorer Dream in April 2019. The first two were originally ordered for Star Cruises and are in the same category as Norwegian Cruise Line’s Breakaway-class, while Explorer Dream was built in 1999 as SuperStar Virgo, also for Star Cruises. Next to join the fleet in 2021 will be Global Dream, a 208,000gt Global-class “I am proud to say no other company understands Asian cruisers like we do” “