A cruise ship docks at the Guangzhou Nansha International Cruise port on June 25, 2024 in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province. Over 700 tourists will embark on a five-day round-trip from Guangzhou to Vietnam. China's cruise tourism market has been on a rapid recovery this year, and the number of cruise passengers will reach 1.2 million in 2024, rebounding to 58 percent of pre-COVID-19 level in 2019. Photo: VCG

China's cruise market saw a robust recovery in the first half of 2024, with 206 voyages operated by 23 cruise ships that carried 500,000 passengers, China Media Group (CMG) reported on Sunday.

Passenger turnover has returned to about 50 percent of the level in the same period in 2019, while the data in the second quarter outstripped that of the first quarter by nearly 60 percent, according to CMG, citing data from the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

Eight cruise ships operated by seven cruise companies have already resumed services, operating from eight major cruise ports, according to the MOT. The ships ferry passengers among ports in China and Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam. Nearly a dozen foreign cruise ships made regular visits to Chinese ports during the first half of the year.

Li Xuelian, an MOT official, said a further recovery of the cruise market provides solid support in expanding domestic demand and boosting consumption. Li said that as the summer vacation season has come, the passenger turnover from cruise voyages will continue to expand in the third quarter.

On June 29, the MSC Bellissima started its summer vacation voyage in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, carrying 4,000 passengers to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The voyage marked the return of the foreign cruise ship company to the southern Chinese economic hub post-pandemic.

MSC said that it is redeploying its MSC Splendida to the Shenzhen Shekou Cruise Home Port from December to better serve customers in the Greater Bay Area.

"Looking into the second half of the year, the cruise tourism industry stands to benefit directly from the further recovery of China's tourism industry," Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The fact that China is now building its own large cruise ships has also been imprinted on the minds of consumers about this novel way of travel and having fun, Zhang said, noting that the 15-day visa-free facilitation for foreign cruise tourists will expand foreign tourist inflows.

In May, an official of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, said that China's cruise tourism market, with a sharp rise in both Chinese and foreign passenger flows, will achieve a full recovery within two years.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, China's cruise market was the second-largest globally.

On May 15, China's National Immigration Administration (NIA) announced the full implementation of a 15-day visa exemption policy for foreign tourist groups entering China on cruise ships from the country's coastal provinces and cities, in a move that further opened up the country's tourism market and drew the attention of more international cruise companies.

China's implementation of the visa-free policy has been a great boon to fuel the recovery of the global tourism industry with China's vast market and unique tourist attractions providing more opportunities for global tourism industry players, Zhang said, noting that the move allowed China's tourism industry to better imbed itself into the global tourism supply chain.

Li, the MOT official, said the ministry will continue to provide policy support and guidance to ramp up port construction to meet the new momentum seen in the Chinese cruise tourism industry, which is marked by diversified supply and the speedy development of the domestic cruise industry.

The number of foreign tourists visiting China is expected to continue to grow in the second half of the year, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said last week.

In the first half, a total of 14.635 million foreign nationals entered the country through various ports, an increase of 152.7 percent year-on-year, NIA data showed. Among them, 8.542 million entered without a visa, accounting for 52 percent of the total, an increase of 190.1 percent year-on-year.