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"Cultivating traditions means preserving the flame – not worshipping the ashes." This aphorism by the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset inevitably comes to mind when one takes a look at the company history of Hapag-Lloyd. After all, since it was founded more than 150 years ago, the character of the company has been shaped equally by tradition and innovation. Definitely to its advantage – today, the light of Hapag-Lloyd shines more brightly than ever, and at this stage, the enterprise is one of the leading transport and logistics businesses worldwide. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, which was born from this history, is by now a subsidiary of TUI AG. Being synonymous with innovation, luxury and quality at the highest level, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises is considered the “figurehead” in the Group’s very diversified portfolio.
Today's fleet at Hapag-Lloyd Cruises feels honour-bound by this tradition, history and high standard of quality. This is equally true for the "world's most beautiful yacht", the EUROPA, and for the "globetrotter with style", the COLUMBUS.
As a special highlight, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises - unique in the world of cruises - offers two of the most extraordinary discoverer ships: the HANSEATIC and the BREMEN, "your completely personal expedition", stand for cruise experiences in the most exciting regions of the globe.
All of this began in 1847. The constantly growing flows of emigrants to America gave 30 Hamburg ship-owners and merchants the idea to benefit from this business - and to establish the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft, known as Hapag for short. A little less than ten years later, the Norddeutsche Lloyd was founded in Bremen. The two companies were keen competitors with one another, but they also cooperated in many sectors - and were the dominant force in world seafaring for decades. Finally, these two traditional shipping companies merged in 1970 to form Hapag-Lloyd AG.
But it was 1891 when the legendary Hapag director Albert Ballin discovered a previously unknown market segment in seafaring and thought of a brilliant way to fill the gap: He had the vision of sending people on a sea voyage purely for pleasure - and not, as usual at the time, just to move from A to B. The idea fascinated others as well, and when the first ship, the "Augusta Victoria", set sail for a pleasure cruise to the Mediterranean and the Orient in January 1891, the concept of the holiday trip at sea was born. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises has remained true to this tradition with all of its heart and soul until today. This passion has not diminished in the least at the beginning of a new millennium.
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