However, there are still challenges in shipping routes, vessel transfers, and destinations, and major cruise companies are gradually resuming their business

Due to the epidemic, cruise tourism has almost stagnated for 3 years, especially for international cruise companies, which have struggled to carry out international cruise route business for a while. After the gradual recovery of the market in the first half of this year and the opening up of outbound team tours, cruise tourism, especially some international tourism companies, are eagerly returning to the market and planning to reopen their international cruise tourism routes.

Recently, many cruise companies have resumed their business, such as determining the home port of international cruise routes. However, for some companies, restoring international routes, deploying cruise ships in the short term, and changing some tourist destinations are all challenges they need to face.

Market recovery and collective restart of cruise enterprises

The restart of cruise enterprises began several months ago.

"We have resumed the route this year. We mainly take the route of the the Xisha Islands. At present, only two cruise ships can take the route of the the Xisha Islands, and we are one of them. Generally speaking, we can take about 500 tourists to the Xisha Islands each time. Apart from bad weather days such as typhoon season, there should be tens of thousands of tourists every year, and this year is expected to be more than before the epidemic." Mr. Li, a cruise official in the South China Sea, told China Business News.

The recovery of cruise tourism has also brought business opportunities to related businesses. The reporter from First Finance and Economics saw in Yinyu, Sansha City that the residents mainly depend on fishing for a living, but since the development of cruise tourism in the the Xisha Islands, the local residents have started the business of seafood catering. The recovery of tourists this year has brought good benefits to the residents. "Most of our income comes from fishing, and the arrival of tourists has increased our income. Currently, about 10% of my income comes from the consumption brought by tourists visiting the island," a resident of Yinyu told a reporter from First Financial News.

International cruise companies are even more active. Huang Ruiling, president of MSC Mediterranean Cruise Line China, said in an interview with China Business News, "In 2024, we will return to the Chinese market, and increase investment in the Chinese market through the deployment of two ships and three home ports. We have successively released and launched the winter, spring and summer routes of the flagship MSC Glory from its home port in China in 2024. MSC Glory will start its home port route in Keelung, Taiwan, China, China, on January 16, 2024, and its home port route in Shanghai on March 16, and its first season in Shenzhen on June 29, and its return to Shanghai on July 31, 2024, to operate the summer At present, the market response is very enthusiastic, and the traffic of official hotlines, official applets, official websites, Feizhu and other channels is very considerable."

Royal Caribbean previously announced the completion of the deployment of international cruise routes in China in 2024, and its "Ocean Spectrum" will return to Shanghai in April 2024. During next year's May Day holiday, the "Ocean Spectral" will embark on a cruise vacation route from Shanghai, traveling from 4 to 7 nights and 8 days to neighboring countries.

According to public information, on May 26th, the Blue Dream Star, a subsidiary of Shanghai Blue Dream International Cruise Co., Ltd., embarked on a 5-day and 4-night test voyage to neighboring countries from the Wusongkou International Cruise Port in Shanghai; On June 18th, the first international route of "China Merchants Yidun" under the China Merchants Viking Cruise Line set sail from the Shanghai Port International Passenger Transport Center on the North Bund; On August 22nd, Aida Cruise announced that its "Mediterranean" cruise ship will start an international cruise route with Tianjin as its home port on September 30th; The cruise brand World of Scenic Spots recently announced that its new winter route, "World of Scenic Spots One," will travel to Sanya.

This year, the national transportation regulatory department has released the "Plan for the orderly resumption of international cruise transportation pilot flights", which aims to restart the pilot flights of international cruise transportation in an orderly manner in Shanghai and Shenzhen. On August 18th, at a press conference held by the Shanghai Municipal Government Information Office, relevant officials introduced that since the resumption of operations of the "Blue Dream Star" and "China Merchants Yidun", they have operated 21 voyages and received a total of 26000 tourists. Since the resumption of pilot flights in Shanghai, the cruise industry has achieved a ticket sales revenue of over 300 million yuan, a consumption of about 100 million yuan in ship supply materials, and driven the consumption of about 3.5 million yuan in duty-free shops at cruise ports. Overall, more than 4000 new jobs have been created, and it is expected to add about 20000 new jobs by 2024.

These challenges need to be noted

After multiple interviews with First Financial reporters, it was learned that although major cruise companies have resumed their business, cruise ship operations are different from general tourism enterprises in that cruise ships need to be laid out in advance, including route procedures, the allocation of cruise ships and related personnel, all of which require a certain amount of time. Therefore, some international cruise ship routes will not resume until next year.

"International cruise routes also require visa application and consideration of the reception situation in the destination market. The recovery of outbound tourism this year is good, but visa application is not as fast. We can see that the summer season was originally a suitable season for cruise travel, but for a time, international cruise arrangements and visas are difficult to keep up, so summer cruise tourism is not prosperous. You can look forward to the upcoming Mid Autumn Festival and National Day holidays," a senior travel agency operator told a reporter from First Financial News.

"The restart of outbound tourism represents the further recovery of China's tourism and cruise markets. At the same time, challenges and opportunities coexist. Since the suspension of flights for three years, the market environment has undergone significant changes, including channel side, consumer mentality, and business layout of enterprises. Supply chain layout and crew recruitment also require a long preparation period. Faced with various challenges, we need to further improve preparation work and deployment arrangements, and help channel reconstruction. We will further strive for resources, improve route deployment, such as further increasing routes to South Korea and Southeast Asia on the basis of existing routes, and provide more destination choices for tourists. We will launch more diversified and customized products and services for Chinese tourists." Huang Ruiling told First Financial reporters that she has launched a program for Chinese crew. Recruiting work and conducting training in batches. In terms of channels, we will continue to carry out digital transformation and social media promotion and interaction, and further strengthen our own digital channels and e-commerce platforms to closely communicate with consumers.

It is worth noting that most international cruise ships based in Chinese cities will take the Japan South Korea route, and recently, the incident of Japan discharging pollutants into the sea has sparked heated discussions, which may also have an impact on the recovery of the cruise market.

"We prioritize the health and safety of all tourists and crew members. We closely monitor the situation and have not received any official guidance or suggestions indicating that MSC Mediterranean Cruises needs to change its original port and route arrangements. Therefore, the departure schedule for MSC Mediterranean Cruises from China's home port in 2024 has not been adjusted. We will continue to monitor the development of relevant situations and the policies and suggestions of various government departments, international and domestic health institutions. If there are any updates to relevant routes in the future, we will inform them through official channels as soon as possible," said Huang Ruiling.

Zhang Zhining, CEO of Reliable Travel, believes that from the supply side, cruise product service providers can reduce the impact of Japan's pollution incidents by avoiding the procurement of food and goods from Japan; On the other hand, expanding other routes in Southeast Asia can also provide consumers with more choices. From the demand side, there has been a situation of some tourists canceling orders in the Japanese tourism market in the short term. In the medium to long term, the impact of Japan's pollution discharge incident on tourism related to Japan may be more intuitively reflected in next summer and autumn.