Shanghai aims to be top-notch cruise hub

Adora Magic City, China's first domestically made large cruise ship, completed its first trial voyage on July 24. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Shanghai will build itself into a world-class cruise hub by 2035 and aim to draw in 3 million cruise tourists annually by 2025, according to the Shanghai Action Plan for Promoting the High-quality Development of the International Cruise Economy (2023-25) released by the city government on Friday.

The city has also set an ambitious target to grow into a cruise tourism destination with international influence, and an economic center for cruises with global resource allocation capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region by 2035.

The action plan includes specific goals to build a cruise hub port, a headquarters port and a manufacturing port, Zhu Min, director of the Municipal Commission of Commerce, said during a news conference on Friday.

Among the 20 measures outlined in the action plan, expanding the cruise headquarters economy tops the list, which focuses on gathering and establishing headquarters of both Chinese and foreign cruise companies.

Apart from upgrading the quality of local cruise brands, the plan is to attract foreign-funded cruise companies to set up their headquarters here and form an agglomeration of international cruise company headquarters.

Since the Ministry of Transport issued a plan to resume international cruises in March after a three-year interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shanghai has taken the lead in resuming cruise trips.

Since then, the cruise industry has achieved more than 300 million yuan ($41.6 million) in ticket sales, and created more than 4,000 jobs. It is estimated that there will be about 20,000 more jobs by 2024, according to official statistics.

"International experience shows that when the per capita GDP reaches $5,000, the cruise market starts budding and when the per capita GDP exceeds $10,000, it will develop rapidly," said Zhang Jie, deputy director of the Municipal Commission of Commerce. "As for Shanghai, the per capita GDP has exceeded $25,000, which has laid the foundation for the high-quality development of the cruise economy.

"Shanghai has already formed good cooperation with the international cruise industry before the pandemic, and it is believed that more international cruise enterprises will accelerate their return to the Chinese market," said Zhang.

Liu Ping, deputy director of the Municipal Economic and Information Technology Commission, said large cruise ships have been widely recognized as a high-tech product.

Adora Magic City, China's first domestically made large cruise ship, completed its first trial voyage in July and will start its maiden voyage next year.

Liu said the city will speed up the construction of independent industrial chains and give full play to the advantages of China State Shipbuilding Corp, to enhance the independent design and construction capabilities of large cruise ships.