Type Private Cruises Founded 2006 Headquarters Athens, Greece. | Industry Cruises Founder Lakis Venetopoulos | |
Area served Greece, Turkey, The Adriatic Sea, Costa Rica & Panama, Cuba, the Canary Islands, Seychelles, Costa Rica & Panama, and Cape Verde | ||
About
Variety Cruises is a private yacht cruise line with its headquarters in Athens, Greece. It was founded in 2006 by Lakis Venetopoulos. and currently owns and operates 11 Cruise Ships.
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History
Variety Cruises was established in 2006 following the merge of Zeus Tours & Yacht Cruises – a 3rd generation cruise and tourism business operating since 1949- and Hellas Yachts which started operating small ships cruises in 1993. The company’s history dates back to 1949 when the original founder of Zeus Cruises built the company’s first ship Eleutherios in order to fill a need for educational travel in the Sea-bordered country of Greece. Diogenis Venetopoulos was a historian turned tour-guide with a vision of merging tourism with education and providing guests a travel platform to explore, discover, and learn about the local communities visited on board small ships.
Lakis Venetopoulos, the company's President is closely involved with the Greek Tourism industry as part of SETE and was most recently interviewed by CNN's Richard Quest whereby he was quoted mentioning he was hopeful as to the financial recession of Greece during 2015.
Market position
The cruise lines ships have been offering scheduled and specialized charter cruises since 1949 to clients including Mercedes, various Alumni Groups including Museum of Natural History, MIT, Harvard University, National Geographic Lindblad among others. The company was closely involved with the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004, using the ships as floating homes available for the nation's visiting diplomacy and athletes,establishing the cruise line as a floating home boutique cruise line.
Variety Cruises was voted by USA Today's voters as the Number once boutique cruise line in 2015. According to USA TODAY Variety Cruises' 12 luxury yachts offer an intimate ambiance, attentive service and soft adventure at a host of unique ports. The small ship sizes means yachts can anchor in secluded lagoons for a swim stop or dock right in the heart of a destination to give passengers more time to explore a port.
The company has established itself as one of the pioneers in theme cruises including Gay and Lesbian themed cruises. Constantine Venetopoulos one of the cruise lines Ambassadors heads the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association division of the company.
Destinations
Variety Cruises is known for visiting off the beaten track destinations including The Gambia, in the Rivers of West Africa among other unique destinations. The cruise lines' first destination was Greece, but since the company's expansion a number of destinations include the Adriatic Sea, Costa Rica & Panama, Cuba, the Canary Islands, Seychelles, and Cape Verde. The company's West Africa destination was recently featured by CNN for their Rivers of West Africa program.
Fleet
Variety Cruises runs a fleet of eight small cruise ships, in addition to owning and renting a fleet of 4 private yachts. The company's flagship is the Variety Voyager, followed by the Galileo, the Panorama, Panorama II, the Harmony V, the Harmony G, the Pegasus, and the newly acquired Callisto. The company also owns a fleet of smaller yachts solely available for charter including the Obsession, the Absolute King, Christiane, and the Monte Carlo.
Charity Work
The company is closely involved with the local communities visited, with various sustainable action projects including the Kuntaur Film Festival In 2013, the company founded a school project in The Gambia entitled The Lamin Koto School Project