It Is Still Necessary To Strengthen The Cooperation Of Cruise Industry In Guangdong, Hong Kong And Macau To Build A Cruise Home Port Group.

Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Macao, Hongkong, and Shenzhen's Prince Zi Wan cruise home port (Xinhua)

Sitting on three cruise ports, the basic strength of the Bay Area in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau makes the cruise industry in the bay area full of imagination.

According to the data quoted by the port authority of Guangzhou, in 2018, when the number of passenger arrivals and passengers in the whole country was about 4 million 880 thousand passengers and the overall decline was 1.2%, the number of cruise passengers arriving and exported in Guangdong Bay Hong Kong Macau area reached 2 million 570 thousand passengers, an increase of 13.6% over the same period last year, and maintained a good momentum of development.

But the background of this group of data growth is that China's cruise industry has entered the adjustment period after the barbaric development period. The growth of the cruise industry in the big bay area is mainly the catch-up of the latecomers. Maintaining the two digit growth will not be an easy task.

Chen Hongxian, director of the Guangzhou port authority, also admitted to the media including the twenty-first Century economic report reporters on 7 March. At present, the tourism industry in Da Wan district is still in the development stage. There are many problems to be solved and urgent improvements. We hope that all sectors of the industry will strengthen communication and coordination to jointly promote the cooperation and development of the cruise industry in the big bay area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and promote the development and cooperation of the cruise industry in the Greater Bay area at a higher level.

In the view of other respondents, a series of policies related to cruise ships mentioned in the outline of the development plan for the big bay area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau (hereinafter referred to as the "Outline") are good news for the industry, but we need to start from policies to effectively link up and strengthen cooperation between the cruise ships and ports in the big bay area, while developing cruise industry, and promote the development of cruise liner matching and repair shipbuilding in the big bay area, so as to guarantee the high-end manufacturing.

On the same day, Zheng Weihang, Secretary General of the CCYIA of China's Transport Association, also suggested that the cooperation between the three major cruise ships and ports in the Greater Bay area should be further upgraded, for example, the further opening of the waterway, the cruise ships could cross each other's main ports in the Bay area. He said that cooperation is the basis and prerequisite for the construction of the cruise liner in the world tourism destination of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.

Passenger volume in Tai Wan area is increasing.

After ten years of rapid growth, China's cruise industry has entered a period of adjustment. According to statistics from CCYIA and China Port Association, in 2018, 13 cruise ports in China (excluding Hongkong port) received 969 cruise ships, down 17.95% from the same period last year. In 2017, the growth rate of cruise passengers in China was 8% and the rate of voyage growth was 17%.

According to the annual ranking of tourists, CCYIA data show that Shanghai international passenger transport center and Shanghai Wusong Port International Cruise Port received 4 million 30 thousand passengers in 2018, down 21.29% compared with the same period last year, of which 2 million 750 thousand passengers travelled by 2 million 750 thousand, down 7.5% compared with the same period last year. The cruise ships of Tianjin International Cruise Port were 116 in 2018, down 33.71% compared to the same period last year, and 680 thousand passengers were receiving cruise ships, representing a decrease of 27.41% over the same period.

At the same time, Guangzhou received cruise routes 94 times in 2018, down 22.95% compared to the same period last year, but the number of cruise passengers increased by 19.26%, up to 480 thousand times. In 2018, the number of cruise ships in Shenzhen decreased from 92 to 89 in 2017, down 3.26% from the same period last year, while the number of cruise passengers increased from 190 thousand in 2017 to 360 thousand in 2018.

Why is the popularity of cruise ships decreasing, but the number of passengers receiving cruise ships is rising? More large ships are the main reason for the layout of the bay area. Zhu Fuming, chief executive of Genting cruise group, told the twenty-first Century economic report reporter on 7 March that after some intense market competition in 2017, some cruise companies evacuated cruise ships from Tianjin's international cruise port and other port ports, or shortened the operation time or routes at these ports.

"In 2015 and 2016, people in the industry thought the market would be good, so many ships entered the Chinese market. After the competition in 2017, the whole market changed in 2018, for example, some ships shortened their routes and some directly left the market. Zhu Fuming interviewed in March 7th pointed out that the situation in the bay area is quite different. For example, the the Atlantic of Costa DA has been operating in Shenzhen since 2018. The star dream cruise ship "dream of the world" has also been operating in Guangzhou and Nansha since 2017.

According to Zhu Fuming, the "world dream" occupancy rate reached the international level in 2018. These factors indicate that although the cruise industry in the Tai Wan area is a latecomer to Shanghai and Tianjin port owners, it has great potential in terms of market capacity.

Planning outline

For the cruise industry in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, the period of rapid growth has also passed. In Zhu Fuming's view, although the development potential of the cruise industry in the bay area is higher than that in other areas, it is expected that the growth rate will remain at around 10% in the next few years.

In March 7th, Wu Wenxue, deputy director of the former National Tourism Administration, said that the industry needs to correctly understand that China's cruise economy has passed the golden ten year development period, and we should rationally understand the current turning point and adjustment period. He pointed out that China did not have time to popularize cruise culture, and relying on strong market demand and administrative push, the major cruise companies competed to buy market expectations. Although data began to fall in 2017, even such data in the developed countries have been developing at a high speed and should not be bad for cruise industry.

Wu Wenxue told reporters that cruise cruises should be the dominant industry in the big bay area of Guangdong, Hongkong and Macau, which should lead the development of China's cruise industry. But in fact, the area of Da Wan District has been slow in this regard. Before being overtaken by Shanghai and Tianjin, it should be actively implemented after the promulgation of the plan, aiming to develop the cruise industry as a growth point.

To this end, he suggested that we should first solve the pain points of infrastructure and ancillary services. From the international experience, the challenge of supporting facilities and resource development is a long-term problem faced by the development of China's cruise industry. At present, there is a 220 thousand GT cruise berth and a 100 thousand ton cruise berth at Taizi Bay Cruise Terminal in Shenzhen.

In addition, Hong Minqi, director of Guangzhou Nansha District culture, radio and TV sports and Sports Bureau, said that the Guangzhou Nansha cruise terminal will also bid farewell to the cargo port area currently used in October 2019 and put the cruise port into operation. According to the plan, 4 berths will be set up at the cruise terminal. It will become one of the largest cruise ships in Asia, and it will be able to dock at 225 thousand tons of super cruise ships.

With the Hongkong Eic cruise terminal, the cruise port in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau has already ranked the world's top in hardware facilities. On the other hand, the cruise port in the bay area faces similar problems with other cruise ships in China. Huang Biao, deputy general manager of COSCO marine (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. pointed out that at present, China's cruise port has problems of single function, lack of supporting facilities, lack of linkage between cruise port construction and its urban tourism resources, and low product awareness. In addition, the single issue of cruise lines has become increasingly prominent, and the homogenization of cruise products has become increasingly serious. At the same time, the impetus and market demand of new cruise lines are growing.

Ban Zhirong, managing director of Hongkong Eic pier, told reporters on twenty-first Century economic report 7, "after experiencing the stimulation of supply in the past few years, after the construction of a large cruise terminal in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the port area of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hongkong is further developing. Can we stimulate the demand in the future, and stimulate the demand through the" Outline "?

Zhu Fuming also said that to make the cruise industry bigger and stronger in the bay area, and do a good job in the propaganda work of cruise tourism, to enhance demand is the main objective. Inspired by the "Outline", the "world dream" launched the "Nansha Hongkong" experience on the basis of existing routes.

"Through this short haul route, more people can experience cruise tours in the short term, averaging about 2000 passengers per weekend." Zhu Fuming said, this will also enable more passengers to understand the value of cruise products.

Further cooperation in the cruise port of the Bay Area

To boost demand and stimulate demand, on the one hand, enhancing the sense of experience of cruise products is also a key link. Ban Zhirong pointed out that at present, the distance between the three cruise ships in the bay area is less than 50 nautical miles, but there are still limitations between them. He suggests that more affiliation and related arrangements for travel documents can be increased.

As mentioned in the outline, we will promote the construction of international cruise ports in Hongkong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in an orderly way, further increase international liner shipping routes, and explore and simplify the procedures for cruising cruise ships, yachts and passengers. We should gradually simplify and relax the documents arrangement of cruise passengers in the mainland, and study and explore the mainland cruise passengers going to Hong Kong to participate in all cruise liner voyages in transit.

The cloud top cruise group, which has entered the bay area market for 25 years, also hopes to create products with bay color. Zhu Fuming expressed the hope that after improving the convenience between documents and waterways, the products of main cities in the bay area could be built, and a route connecting Macao, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hongkong will be planned to bring more inland and international tourists to the bay area, so that the concept of bay area will be well known to more people and more international tourists.

Ban Zhirong suggested that the new "free pass" route design could be given on the route, such as "Shenzhen Vietnam Hainan Hongkong Shenzhen", which further stimulated the demand by exploring new routes.

"With the content mentioned in the outline, we can let people travel through Hongkong in the form of cruise tourism, do more creative routes, and stimulate the market, so that we can continue to develop in the next stage. It should be a very good development opportunity for all cruise companies and cruise terminals." Ban Zhirong said.

Zheng Weihang also said that the advantage of the manufacturing cluster in Da Wan area is very obvious. It can fully integrate the resource advantages in the bay area, and gradually develop from the introduction of repair cruise to the construction of cruise ships, and build the big bay area into an internationally competitive cruise repair base.