China’s cruise ship services 220,000, sailing full steam into uncharted market

China’s first domestically produced cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, has completed 54 voyages and serviced 220,000 domestic and foreign passengers after seven months of operations – an achievement reflecting the country’s ambition to win a stake of the lucrative market.

The ship – long hailed as a source of national pride, along with the country’s home-grown C919 passenger jet – has capacity for 5,246 passengers and holds 2,125 cabins. It has been fully loaded for every trip according to data unveiled at a Wednesday event organised by China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC), the parent company of the Adora’s builder.

The Adora Magic City – a product of a joint venture between CSSC and American cruise operator Carnival – is offering 86 international cruises from Shanghai this year, most of which will berth in Japan and South Korea. The shipbuilder estimated the vessel’s annual purchase volume would reach 220 million yuan (US$30.8 million).

Purchase volume is used to calculate the necessary expenditures to service and supply a ship over a given period or number of journeys, which can benefit downstream industries.

The maiden voyage in early January – longer and more opulent than most subsequent trips – carried a reported purchase volume of over 60 million yuan on its own, according to a report by state media outlet China Daily.

Beijing has made overtures towards boosting service consumption – along with plans for consumer goods trade-ins and equipment upgrades – to drive the national economy through the second half of 2024, after the 4.7 per cent gross domestic product growth recorded in the second quarter fell short of the annual benchmark of “around 5 per cent”.China Daily’s report said more than 95 per cent of passengers expressed satisfaction when assessing the vessel’s food, accommodation, shopping and entertainment services.

In the first six months of 2024, the Adora accounted for 42 per cent of China’s cruise tourism market, serving nearly 180,000 passengers.

China accounts for the world’s second-largest cohort of cruise tourists, with a projected global market share of more than 10 per cent by 2030 – a year in which the Adora’s builder estimated the number of cruise passengers in China will amount to 4.5 million, the economic contributions from cruise ships will exceed 75 billion yuan, and the total scale of the industry would reach 120 billion yuan.

The performance of the Adora and its organisational management, however, have been called into question by some users purporting to be passengers on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu.

A frequent criticism concerned the food supply. Some commenters claimed there were “fights for food” and long queues for the free buffet, with “2,000 people and 1.5 hours left for breakfast”.

Another user referenced popular media depicting no-holds-barred contests for superiority: “From Succession to The Hunger Games, it’s only a boat ticket away.”

Younger tourists, meanwhile, disparaged what they saw as “monotonous entertainment activities”, joking that the square dances offered aboard made the ship into a “farmhouse of the sea”.

News Resource: scmp.com