Star Cruises and Singapore Cruise Centre, the cruise terminal operator, have entered into a strategic partnership that will make it more attractive for Star Cruises’ fleet to use Singapore as a hub for its cruise business.

Under an agreement signed between Genting Hong Kong Chief Operating Officer (Cruise) William Ng and SCC President/CEO Cheong Teow Cheng, Star Cruises will secure priority berthing rights at SCC’s International Passenger Terminal at HarbourFront in Singapore.

The deal runs for 10 years and gives Star Cruises the commercial and financial incentives to expand its presence in Singapore at a time when its affiliated company, Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), one of two integrated resorts in Singapore, is helping to attract tourists from the region to the Republic at record levels. This July, tourist arrivals to the island reached an all-time high of one million, according to Singapore government statistics.

SCC’s International Passenger Terminal (IPT) at HarbourFront is near RWS, Singapore’s first integrated resort wholly owned by Genting Singapore PLC. The proximity of RWS to the IPT and the berthing advantage provided under the Agreement will combine to give the Genting group greater flexibility to cross-market its offerings to cruise and integrated resort customers.

SCC saw a record 900 ship calls and 1.14 million passenger throughput in 2009.