Pioneering an event that analysts consider a very promising market, two of the country’s local travel agencies, Cruise Shop Plus and Airborne 7 Travel in cooperation with Icon Magazine and Star Cruises, the leading cruise line in Asia Pacific, recently launched Asia’s first "Pink Cruise Ship," targeting the region’s huge and untapped gay market.

Dubbed as "Cruised Out!" Asia’s first gay cruise is set to sail on May 8 from the Singapore Cruise Terminal. The largest ship in Asia Pacific, the SuperStar Virgo, kicks off a string of events onboard and offboard for the so-called "pink community," highlighted by stops at the world-famous islands of Penang, Malaysia and Phuket, Thailand.

For as low as $580 (excluding taxes), the package already includes a 4-day/3-night cruise on board Star Cruises’ SuperStar Virgo inside cabin and quadshare; round-trip airfare (Manila-Singapore-Manila); admission to all Pink events onboard the ship; plus free admission to Happy Bar in Singapore for welcome and farewell parties and discount on drinks.

The cruise is packed with activities that promises to be entertaining and truly tailor-made to suit the tastes of the "pink community."

With a market that seems to have been burgeoning at the seams during the last few years, interest in the potentially lucrative business of catering to the homosexual segment of society has risen. While many enterprising groups scramble to have a piece of the pie that Asia’s gay market offers in terms of market leadership, few outfits have come up with products and activities that not only "nibble at the edges" of the market, but also actively pursue the gay segment.

"From a purely business point of view, we recognize the power of the pink community and its potentials as a market. With this activity, however, we strive to go beyond exploiting this huge market, but aim for providing a venue through which members of this community could really be seen and heard, like any other segment of society," said Anne Cusi of Cruise Shop Plus. Travelers from the Philippines may get in touch with Airborne 7 Travel at tel. No. 751-9860 or log on to www.iconmag.com.ph for details about the cruise.

Star Cruises, the third largest cruise line in the world is a global cruise brand with a combined fleet of 20 ships in service and under construction with over 29,000 lower berths, cruising to destinations and islands in Asia-Pacific, North and South America, Hawaii, Caribbean, Alaska, Europe, Mediterranean, Bermuda and the Antarctica.

Meanwhile, the impact of the tsunami on Thailand’s holiday resorts is proving to be far less serious than originally feared, following an official inspection by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and with the launch of the "Pink Cruise Ship."

Nearly all beaches have resumed normal tourist activity. Damaged accommodation is being re-built with remarkable speed and pollution is virtually nil, with the famous beach-and-rainforest scenery unaffected, and the sea has been observed that it is cleaner than before. According to TAT, only some of the shallower corals are suffering from sand disturbance, and volunteers are working to remedy this. Even Phuket’s fashionable Patong Beach, the most high-profile casualty of the flooding, is expected to be back in business in just two months, while the rest of this scenic holiday island is already functioning business as usual.