Celestyal Cruises (part of Louis Group) has clarified its position in Cuba Cruise after previous media reports had Celestyal buying out Cuba Cruise and becoming a significant shareholder.

Started for the 2013-2014 season, the Cristal sailed in Cuba on a charter agreement with Cuba Cruise, which was a joint venture involving the Louis Group, as well as Cuba Cruise.

“We gradually increased our stake over the past two years to where we are now the significant majority (shareholder),” said Celestyal in a statement. “Our intention is to support the venture’s continued growth and further commit to this unique product. As a global cruise line and after a successful 2015 cruise season in Cuba, we decided the synergy was there, between our Eastern Mediterranean cruises and our Cuba product, and that there was significant untapped market share.”

Thus, the brand will extend the 2015-2016 season, as previously reported, and further enhance marketing and promotion in Canada. New for the upcoming season is a port call in Maria La Gorda (Cuba).

The Celestyal sales network in Canada will now market both the Cuba Cruise brand and Celestyal’s Eastern Mediterranean program.

“We are excited to announce the next phase of growth by welcoming a new team of colleagues in our Canadian-based sales network for the Cuba Cruise brand. They all share our philosophy of creating and marketing unique cruise products worldwide which give our passengers incomparable destinations, authentic cultural experiences, fantastic local cuisine and non-stop music and dance,” said Pythagoras Nagos, director of sales.

“We think this is going to be an incredible growth opportunity for us, and our sales and marketing team continues to craft a strategy to educate the  travel market about our Cuba cruises, which we also believe are an excellent way to promote our incomparable Adriatic and Aegean cruises,” said the company.