Eye on cruise ship tourism

Source: Xinhua | 2017-12-05

CRUISE ships will be the focus of a marine exhibition to be held in Shanghai tomorrow as cruise companies eye the huge and promising Chinese market for cruise tourism.

The four-day Marintec China 2017 exhibition will highlight luxury cruise ships as well as developments in ocean engineering and shipping, said Xing Wenhua, president of Shanghai Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineers.

China is one of the largest markets leading the growth and its demand for cruise ships is growing at 30 percent annually, Michael Duck, president of foreign committee of Marintec China, said.

China is now the world’s second largest cruise ship market by passengers which totaled 4.5 million last year, up 84 percent from a year ago. A total of 1,010 cruise ships visited China last year, up 61 percent year on year.