At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the dark horse posture of cruise ships in China's tourism market in 2024 has become more and more obvious. Ctrip data shows that during the New Year's Day 2024 period, cruise bookings will maintain a high growth trend, and cruise bookings from Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen and other home ports will increase by 1 times compared with the same period on New Year's Day in 2020. Cruise travel has become a new choice for consumers to personalize their vacations.
The Cruise Lines International Association expects 35.7 million cruise passengers to board in 2024, up from 31.5 million in 2023, which is up 6% from 2019. "In 2024, the cruise products of Shanghai Port in China's cruise market will recover to the level of 2019, and the supply rate of the national market will recover to 70% of 2019 levels," Liu Zinan, Senior Vice President and Chairman of Royal Caribbean Group. ”
International cruises are pre-sold in advance.
In September this year, the General Office of the Ministry of Transport issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Comprehensive Resumption of International Cruise Transportation", which proposed that on the basis of the pilot resumption of international cruise transportation in Shanghai and Shenzhen cruise ports, the relevant departments decided to fully resume international cruise transportation in and out of China's cruise ports from the date of issuance of the notice.
On the evening of December 18, the newly renovated large luxury cruise ship "Mediterranean Glory" of the Mediterranean Post ** Division successfully completed a 22-day dock repair and maintenance project in Shanghai China Resources Dadong Shipping Engineering***, a shareholding enterprise of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) ** under China Shipbuilding Group, and set sail to Yokohama, Japan to start a new journey, and plans to enter Shanghai Baoshan Wusongkou International Cruise Port on March 16, 2024, which will become the first international cruise ship to return to the home port of Chinese mainland.
The "Mediterranean Glory" is the largest flagship cruise ship in the Asian market after the epidemic, launched from the French Atlantique shipyard in 2019, with a total length of 315 meters and a gross tonnage of 1720,000 tons, with a total height of 65 meters, with 2,217 high-quality cabins and a maximum capacity of 5,686 passengers.
In 2024, Royal Caribbean "Spectrum of the Seas" will open a 4-night, 5-day to 7-night, 8-day cruise from Shanghai to neighboring countries, with destinations covering Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Okinawa and other northeastern ** destinations.
In the face of the rapid recovery of cruise demand and fierce competition in 2024, locking in tourists in advance has become an important measure for cruise brands. On December 26, Royal Caribbean will land on Ctrip's "Super Brand Day", and will start broadcasting in Ctrip's BOSS live broadcast room on December 27, pre-selling the annual products of "Ocean Spectrum" that will set sail in 2024 and lock customers in advance.
The market landscape is facing new changes.
While the cruise tourism market is recovering rapidly, China's cruise market is also facing new changes. "Before 2020, international brands dominated the Chinese cruise market. Now, the market share of Chinese-owned cruise ships has increased. Diversification is a good phenomenon, and fair and healthy industry competition will be conducive to the development of China's cruise industry. ”
On December 15, the first domestic large-scale cruise ship "Aida Modu", which completed the sea trial, moved from Shanghai Waigaoqiao Terminal to Wusongkou International Cruise Port, and will officially start its maiden voyage on New Year's Day 2024, becoming the first large-scale cruise ship to depart from the home port of Shanghai in the new year. As a breakthrough in the field of domestic large-scale cruise ships, "Aida Modu" has attracted much attention as a breakthrough that fills the gap of domestic large-scale cruise ships and achieves zero breakthroughs in the field of domestic large-scale cruise ships. AIDA Post revealed that since the announcement of the deployment, it has received a warm response from tourists and travel agencies, and the demand for consulting cruise products and booking tickets has been endless.
It is understood that the total length of the "Aida Modu" is 3236 meters at 13 gross tonnage550,000 tons, with 2,125 luxurious rooms and suites, fully accommodating 5,246 guests. The ship not only has China's largest offshore duty-free shopping mall, but also has a number of classic comedies and immersive shows created by "Happy Twist".
Shi Jianyong, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai University of Engineering Science and senior researcher of Shanghai International Cruise Economy Research Center, said that by 2035, China's cruise market will reach the scale of 14 million passengers per year, and the contribution of cruise ships to China's industrial economy is expected to reach 550 billion yuan. In the future, the commercial operation of domestic cruise ships will further enhance the market scale of China's cruise tourism.