Cruise white paper plots industry's course

Despite continued signs of market cooling, the healthy and rational development of China’s cruise industry is steaming ahead, according to a white paper released on Thursday in Shanghai.

In the first six months of this year, the 13 cruise ports on Chinese mainland, including Shanghai, Tianjin and Xiamen, received 364 international cruise ship visits, down 27.2 percent compared with the same period last year.

At the same time, the 13 ports saw about 1.78 million inbound and outbound passengers, representing a drop of 23.74 percent, according to the 2019 China Cruise Development Report.

This is the second year that China's cruise industry has posted such declines.

In 2018 domestic cruise ports witnessed a year-on-year decrease of 17.95 percent in international ship visits, which totaled 969. The number of passengers fell by 0.98 percent to nearly 4.9 million.

Despite these drops, the report claims that China's cruise industry is becoming more "rational" as cruising enthusiasm moderates.

China’s cruise industry started in 2006 when the Costa Allegra became the first holiday cruiser to dock at the Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal. That year, the city received more than 80,000 passengers.

In subsequent years, the domestic cruise industry has boomed.

In 2017, China became the second-largest cruise market in the world, behind only the US. Shanghai also became the top cruise port in Asia and the eighth-largest in the world.

According to the report, cruise liners are now adapting to the current market with more personalized services and experiences.

In the coming years, there will be more domestic players in the market, and more foreign passengers are expected to get on board, according to the report.

The white paper was released by the China Cruise and Yacht Industry Association, Asia Cruise Academy of Shanghai Maritime University and China Cruise Terminal and Marine Association.