When you consider the population of the region and the number of cruise ships that are based there even seasonally, by any standards, China and Asia's cruise industry is in its infancy. Western cruise companies have an adequate number of ships there to satisfy demand from western cruisers, but both Carnival Corp and Royal Caribbean are taking a slow, methodical approach to selling to the various local markets. For both companies the first step is to have a ship or two in the region, and educate consumers about cruise vacations, what they are, and the good value they are.
With the western-sourced and the Asian-sourced markets combined, there is only a handful of cruise ships in Asia, but Chinese port authorities are planning for the future. On Saturday Tianjin opened a huge cruise terminal already with plans to expand it.
Costa Romantica was the first ship to call at the new terminal, and we have photos of the ultramodern new terminal in a newsfile on the CND website.
The complete article appeared in the June 28, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.
