Royal Caribbean Group was formed as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in 1997 when Royal Caribbean Cruise Line purchased Celebrity Cruises. The decision was made to keep the two cruise line brands separate following the merger; as a result Royal Caribbean Cruise Line was re-branded Royal Caribbean International and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. was established as the new parent company of both Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises. A third brand under Royal Caribbean Cruises ownership was formed in 2000 when Island Cruises was created as a joint venture with First Choice Holidays. Island Cruises became an informal cruise line on the British and Brazilian markets. In November 2006, Royal Caribbean Cruises purchased Pullmantur Cruises based in Madrid, Spain. From there, the company expanded rapidly with the creation of Azamara Cruises in May 2007 as a subsidiary of Celebrity Cruises. It followed this with the formation of CDF Croisières de France in May 2008 to serve the French-language market. Royal Caribbean also has an interest in TUI Cruises, a joint venture with TUI AG, which began operations in 2009 aimed at a German-speaking market. TUI Cruises's subsidiary, TUI Travel, had a 50% interest in Island Cruises following their merger with First Choice Holidays in 2007. In October 2008, Royal Caribbean Cruises rationalized their holdings by selling their share of Island Cruises to TUI. In early 2019, Royal Caribbean announced in a joint venture with ITM Group the formation of Holistica, a company that intends to develop cruise destinations. The only known destination that the company is to develop is the Grand Lucayan Resort, located in Freeport after the hotel campus was sold to newly formed subsidiary by the Bahamian Government. On July 10, 2020, Royal Caribbean Cruises purchased the remaining shares of Silversea Cruises, and began the process of changing their name to Royal Caribbean Group.
Subsidiaries
Royal Caribbean International
Celebrity Cruises
Azamara
Silversea Cruises
In July 2018, Royal Caribbean Group purchased two-thirds of Silversea Cruises, a Monaco-based cruise line. They purchased the remaining shares in July 2020. Silversea Cruises operates as a subsidiary of Group.
Other significant investments
Pullmantur Cruises
TUI Cruises
Holistica
Holistica was formed in early 2019 after the purchase of the Grand Lucayan Resort in a joint venture by Royal Caribbean and ITM Group. Since the purchase, Royal Caribbean has announced that it is intended for the resort to be developed into a cruise destination that will benefit the local Freeport economy. It was also announced by the CEO of Royal Caribbean that Freeport Harbor will be developed into a cruise facility of choice.
Royal Caribbean Group and its subsidiaries engage political lobbyists in jurisdictions where it holds interests. For example, in South Australia it engaged FIPRA Australia.
