Crystal Cruises has officially relaunched under the guardianship of the A&K Travel Group with a new website and under a reimagined name and vision: Crystal – Exceptional at Sea.

The reinstallation of Crystal Cruises under the ownership of A&K Travel Group continues to progress, and now with a local focus, with highly respected Australian cruise industry veteran, Tony Archbold, to head the local arm of the brand.

Crystal Cruises is offering guests a shipboard credit of up to US$250 per person (AU$350 per person) under a new ‘Open Deposits’ program.

The reborn Crystal Cruises under the leadership of A&K Travel Group is set to return to Australian waters, with both Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity scheduled to make port calls Down Under next summer.

A&K Travel Group’s resurrected Crystal Cruises is bolstering support for travel advisors by appointing a team of highly regarded industry veterans to key trade sales leadership roles.

Crystal Cruises has rejoined Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) as an ocean-going cruise line member.

Crystal Cruises has named Matias Lira as Senior Vice President, Global Sales & Guest Services, jumping ship from Silversea Cruises where he served for the past 12.5 years

A&K Travel Group has confirmed the appointment of Jack Anderson as President of its newly acquired ultra-luxury cruise brand, Crystal Cruises. Anderson held the same position with Crystal Cruises under its former owner, Genting Hong Kong, for 15 months before the brand’s demise in February.

The new owners of the Crystal Cruises’ brand and sister ships Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony, A&K Travel Group Ltd, have signalled their intention to offer some level of goodwill to guests caught out by the collapse of the brand earlier in the year.

A&K Travel Group co-owners, Geoffrey Kent and Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, have been confirmed as the buyers of luxury cruise ships Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony. The sister ships, formerly part of the Crystal Cruises brand, were purchased by an undisclosed company last week for US$103 million and US$25 million respectively.

Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony, the luxury sister-ships of the collapsed Crystal Cruises, will be put up for auction to the highest bidder in early June. The auction is the latest step in the liquidation of the former Genting Hong Kong brand.

Seabourn has stepped in to offer assistance to guests impacted by the temporary pause of Crystal’s global ocean, river and expedition operations. Crystal’s suspension currently impacts ocean and expedition voyages through until April 2022.