It is said that China's cruise market, the world's fastest growing, is undergoing a capacity adjustment, which is hoped will guide it back onto the right course and benefit both operators and consumers.
As the cruise travel market enters its peak season, vessels operating out of domestic ports are decreasing. According to the voyage plans published by major cruise brands, the number of such vessels in operation in China this year is 11, down 38 percent from 18 last year, China Transportation News Network reported.
Since entering the China market in 2014, Princess Cruises has accommodated nearly 700,000 Chinese passengers and expanded to three ports - Shanghai, Tianjin, and Xiamen in Fujian province - in three years. "The Chinese cruise market saw soaring growth of similar products by almost all global cruise operators trying to expand their business here, and in order to compete with each other, ticket prices nose-dived from 20 percent higher than sophisticated markets such as Europe and the United States, to between 30 percent and 40 percent lower," said Cheng Juehao, deputy professor at Shanghai Maritime University and deputy head of the Shanghai International Shipping Institute Cruise Economy Research Center.
As a result, operators are finding it difficult to remain profitable, and customer experience is being sacrificed due to low expenditure.
Whilst its counterparts are cutting their China deployment, Costa is doing the opposite with plans to introduce two tailor-made ships in 2019 and 2020 to the China market, according to Mario Zanetti, president of Costa Group Asia. The brand introduced cruising to China in 2006, and it currently takes up 26 percent of China's cruise market.
Since launching its fly cruise to China in 2016, Cunard has discovered strong demand from highend cruise passengers, most of whom are aged above 50 and live in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province and Chengdu in Sichuan province, the luxury cruise line said in an email response.
China's cruise market handled a total of 4.96 million passenger trips last year, and is expected to grow to 5.7 million passenger trips this year, according to the China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association.
Since the launch of its first domestic cruise port in 2006, to date, China has created eight international cruise ports in Shanghai, Tianjin, Xiamen, Sanya in Hainan province, Qingdao in Shandong province, Zhoushan in Zhejiang province and Shenzhen.
Passenger trips will surpass 20 million by 2030, creating a cruise industry with a market value of about 2 trillion yuan ($295 billion), Hou Yunchun, former deputy director of Development Research Center under the State Council, was quoted as saying by Economic Daily. (Source: China Daily)
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