This photo taken on Nov 4, 2023 shows the cruise ship "Adora Magic City" in Shanghai, east China. Photo:Xinhua

China's first homegrown large cruise ship Adora Magic City will dock at Jeju Island, South Korea on Thursday during its trial operation, to be warmly welcomed by agencies and industry players in the nation as locals view it as a positive sign for booming bilateral tourism in the year ahead.

A welcoming ceremony will be held upon the arrival of the Adora Magic City on Thursday, a staff of Jeju tourism association told the Global Times. Passengers will spend eight hours on the island, visiting attractions including Seongeup Folk Village, Yakcheonsa Temple, Citrus Museum and shopping at Seogwipo-si, South Korean media reported.

Carrying invited guests and nearly 1,300 crew members from around the world, the ship commenced its trial run on Sunday afternoon from the Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal and returned to the terminal on Monday.

Commercial operation of the ship will start at the Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal on January 1, 2024.

The trip to Jeju Island is included in the second trial voyage, which will travel to Japan and South Korea to streamline coordination with local port authorities, as well as the ability to organize and arrange an itinerary, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

It's glad to know that China's first  domestically-built large cruise ship chooses to visit Jeju Island during its trial operation, showing a positive signal for relations between the two countries, Doo Haeun, a South Korean researcher studying in Tsinghua University, told the Global Times. 

With the increase of Chinese tourists to Jeju Island, it is hoped that more Chinese people could develop positive impressions of South Korea, and more cruise liners could open routes to Incheon and Busan in the country in the future, Doo Haeun said.

With China reopening group tours to South Korea in August, an increasing number of Chinese tourists are traveling to the country. As one of most preferred travel destinations for Chinese tourists, Jeju Island recorded 47,544 Chinese mainland travelers in November, representing a staggering increase of 4,206.5 percent compared to the same period last year, according to data released by Jeju Tourism Organization on Tuesday.

Recently, more and more Chinese tourists are traveling to Jeju, said Li Xue, a Chinese employee of Jeju Tourism Organization, believing there's more room for further growth.

Jeju's pillar industry is tourism, and Chinese tourists are one of the largest tourist groups, I expect the recovery of tourism industry can drive the development of Jeju. Cruise ships can bring hundreds or even thousands of Chinese tourists each time, which is very promising for us, Li told Global Times on Wednesday.

In the past six months, 621 visitors have booked driver-guide services of Jeju Island on Ctrip platform. In December 2022, no more than 10 travelers had booked the services, Cao Yuepeng, a guide on the Ctrip platform, told the Global Times on Wednesday. More and more driver-guides came to Jeju Island from Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province this year.

Built by the CSSC Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co, the Adora Magic City is China's first domestically-built large cruise ship, making China the fifth country to independently build large cruise ships, after Germany, France, Italy and Finland. 

The ship was delivered in Shanghaion November 4 after five years' construction. With 135,500 gross tons and 323.6 meters in length, the ship can carry up to 5,246 passengers with a total of 2,125 guest rooms, Xinhua reported.