Costa Cruises offers WeChat programs for Chinese guests

Costa Cruises has become the first cruise brand to launch a series of mini programs on WeChat in an effort to offer a one-stop digital solution for Chinese guests throughout their onboard journey.

A strategic partnership was announced on Tuesday between Costa Cruises of Carnival Corporation & plc, the world's largest leisure travel company, and WeChat, China's leading online social platform, to pioneer the digitization of the cruise experience.

Under the partnership with WeChat, Costa Cruises enables its guests to instantly open and access services inside WeChat without having to download the full standalone mobile app.

Through the strategic partnership, Costa Cruises seek to leverage the platform to offer guests a holistic, "one-stop" digital solution that enhances the entire consumer journey from the home to the port terminal, ship and even shore excursions.

To date, Costa Cruises has already launched two mini programs on WeChat with a third mini program in the pipeline, according to Mario Zanetti, president of Costa Group Asia.

"Costa Cruises' series of mini programs is a first for the cruise industry, and features many innovations and breakthroughs. It uses a combination of mini programs that enable domestic and cross border payments to serve cruise guests across different scenarios," said Juliet Zhu, head of WeChat marketing.

Zhu said she believes the potential business value of mini programs will be demonstrated and customers' experience can be enhanced too. "There will be more innovative cases in different industries in the future," she added.

As the brand that brought cruising into China in 2006 and the leader in the Chinese cruise market, Costa Cruises operates all year in China and has served over 2 million Chinese guests with differentiated products through four ships in China. In the year 2019 and 2020, Costa Cruises will add two ships tailor-made for the China market.