As July 11th marks the 19th National Maritime Day in China, Baoshan District held a salon talk on the high-quality development of the cruise economy at Wusongkou International Cruise Port.

Enterprises are invited to exchange and share ideas on topics such as how to attract more international branded cruise ships to berth at the port and cluster more cruise industry chain enterprises for the construction of an international cruise tourism resort in Shanghai, as well as how to enhance the operational capacity of Wusongkou International Cruise Port. Among the invited are world-renowned cruise enterprises, Chinese-funded cruise enterprises, leading companies in the cultural and tourism industries, as well as Wusongkou Cultural and Tourism Investment Group and Wusongkou International Cruise Port Company.

Participating enterprises believe that with the gradual reopening of China’s international cruise routes, Baoshan has a solid foundation and development potential to build a cruise tourism resort by leveraging Wusongkou Port, Asia’s largest cruise port in the district to expand the cruise economic industry chain, and promote the high-quality development of its cruise economy. International cruise enterprises said that they will continue to increase the cruise route layout in China, and leading tourism enterprises said they will also increase resource matchmaking to assist Baoshan in promoting the building of an international cruise tourism resort and boost the high-quality development of the international cruise economy in Shanghai. At the meeting, MSC Mediterranean Cruises, the only regional headquarters cruise enterprise in China, released the news that its Asian flagship “MSC Glory” will set her maiden voyage in China in March 2024.

MSC Glory’s maiden voyage was announced to be setting sail from Wusongkou in 2024

The person in charge of MSC Cruises in China officially announced at the meeting that MSC Cruises, the largest family-owned cruise ship enterprise in the world, will return to the Chinese market in 2024, and plans to lead the voyage on March 16th of the same year, opening the international cruise routes setting sail from Shanghai to the neighboring countries. By then, MSC Bellissima, the largest and newest flagship cruise ship in Asia, will be the first international cruise ship to return to its home port in mainland China. From now on, the relevant routes will be available for inquiry and booking.

It is said that the first spring itineraries of MSC Glory in 2024 will include a total of nine five-day-four-night or six-day-five-night voyages to popular cruise destinations such as Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Sasebo, where guests will be able to deeply experience the surrounding countries and cities. Meanwhile, the summer itineraries have also been in active preparation and arrangement.

Launched in 2019, MSC Glory is a “legend” cruise ship built by MSC Cruises with a huge investment. The ship, 315 meters in length and 65 meters in height, has a maximum passenger capacity of 5,686, a gross registered tonnage of 172,000 tons and a total of 2,217 high-quality cabins. Bellissima, which means “supreme beauty” in Italian, will be the newest and largest luxury cruise ship deployed in Baoshan Wusongkou port, bringing Chinese guests an unforgettable luxury cruise experience.

At the end of this year, MSC Glory will first dock at Huarun Dadong shipyard in Shanghai to carry out routine maintenance and repair, in order to prepare for the official resumption of operation next year. This is the first time an MSC Cruises ship to enter a dry dock in China for maintenance work. “Ship maintenance is an important part of the cruise industry chain. The preparation of entering the Dadong shipyard in advance is not only to carry out routine maintenance of the ship and upgrade the facilities customized for Chinese guests, but also to support the high-quality development of the cruise economy of Shanghai and China, and the grand vision of enlarging and strengthening the industry chain. We will further explore this hotbed of a booming cruise industry and upgrade our local deployment and investment. I look forward to reuniting with all of you on MSC Glory soon, and also look forward to a more glorious tomorrow for the Chinese cruise market”, said the person in charge of MSC Cruises in China.

A few days before, Royal Caribbean had announced that it will return to Shanghai in April next year, and its Spectrum of the Seas will restart service at Wusongkou with more than 40 voyages. AIDA Cruises and TUI Cruises will also berth at Wusongkou next year. It can be foreseen that in 2024, the world’s famous cruise brand ships will once again converge at Baoshan.

Baoshan is also actively preparing for such events. The person in charge said, during the past three years of international cruise suspension, Baoshan utilized the time to organize the overhaul and renovation work of the “Oriental Eye”. The connected operation of the “Oriental Eye” and T1, T2 terminals opens a new mode for ship line traffic. In the terminal platform, a new area of about 14,000 square meters of wave-shaped membrane structure corridor will be built, and VIP rooms, baby care rooms, consulting bulletin, self-service ticketing and other service areas will be added to provide more humane and convenient services for visitors. The intelligent services are improved as well, with the basic completion of the maritime traffic control center, intelligent cruise port, public platform for ticket sales, cruise data information center and other key projects. The demonstration section of the riverfront project is opened, with Long Beach, Yuejianghui and other riverfront commercial center projects taking shape. More than 2,000 mu (about 1.3 km2) of riverside landscape greening area will be built to provide a more pleasant environment for leisure and entertainment. In addition, the plan of building the Shanghai international cruise tourism resort has been in progress. All these will contribute to a new start of the “cruise ships, yachts and boats” economy.

The building of “an area, a port and two highlands” based on cruise economy

The Shanghai Action Plan for Promoting the High-Quality Development of International Cruise Economy (2023-2025) specifies that Baoshan Wusongkou focuses on building a cruise operation headquarters base with global resource allocation capacity and a Shanghai international cruise tourism resort area themed on “cruise ships, yachts and boats”.

According to the Shanghai Action Plan, Baoshan has formulated and released the Baoshan Implementation Plan for Promoting the High-Quality Development of International Cruise Economy (2023-2025) (hereinafter referred to as the “Baoshan Implementation Plan”). The Baoshan Implementation Plan proposes that Baoshan, where the first China cruise tourism development experimental zone and the first China cruise tourism development demonstration zone is located, should promote the high-quality development of the cruise industry with high-level reform and opening up, and build Shanghai international cruise tourism resort area with international cruise characteristics and Shanghai local styles centering on strengthening the “four major functions” and promoting the construction of the “five centers”. The plan also states that Baoshan should make every effort to build a cruise operation headquarters base with global resource allocation capacity, expand the cruise economy industry chain, and improve the contribution of the cruise economy.

The goal of promoting the high-quality development of the cruise economy is set clearly in the Plan: by 2025, a project development investment of RMB3 billion should be realized, and 300,000 square meters of cultural, commercial and tourism complexes should be built; the annual number of international cruise ships will reach 300, and the annual number of tourists received should reach 2.7 million; a number of cruise headquarters enterprises shall be assembled, and at least one competitive local cruise brand will be settled; the size of the local purchasing scale for the supply of cruise ships will be continuously enlarged, and the proportion of the domestic supply of cruise ships for the international cruise routes will be increased to about 30%.

Centering on the building of “an area, a port and two highlands”, the Baoshan Implementation Plan puts forward 18 work initiatives. An area refers to a fully functional Shanghai international cruise tourism resort. According to the plan, focusing on the construction of the resort, 5 specific measures will be implemented, namely speeding up the function project construction and operation, improving the establishment of leisure consumption space, vigorously promoting tourism product development, continuing to enhance the influence of the brand activities, and exploring innovative governance model for district and port governance coordination. A port refers to an efficiently operated cruise ship home port. The plan specifies five specific measures, namely improving the cruise port infrastructure construction, enhancing the level of cruise port supervision and service, enhancing the comprehensive hub function as the cruise home port, improving the onshore transportation support system, and establishing and improving the emergency disposal management system.

The plan also states that creating a “cruise industry cluster highland with radiation effect” requires more focus on building a cruise operation headquarters base, promoting the landing of cruise characteristics of supporting industries, expanding the scale of cruise supplies, and actively fostering cultural tourism and leisure industry. To build a “cruise ecological innovation highland with demonstration and leading effect”, efforts are needed in promoting the innovation of cruise operation service and regulatory mechanism, the standardization of cruise tourism market management, the enhancement of international influence of cruise tourism and the improvement of cruise talent support system.

At present, Baoshan is comprehensively promoting the development, construction, investment and operation of functional projects in the resort area. The civil engineering of the Yuejianghui project has been completed on June 30, which is aimed to create a city complex combining theme businesses, resort hotels and headquarters bases of “cruise ships, yachts and boats” enterprises. The resort tourism facilities renovation and upgrading project (Phase I) is underway, which will upgrade the landscape in the resort’s main entrance, along the Suitang River and the Yuejianghui section. With the ship as the “medium”, water as the “base”, and the shore as the “wing”, Shanghai international cruise tourism resort will strive to create a new space for vacation, a new world of leisure, a new coordinate of culture and tourism, and a new field of consumption, and is committed to building itself into an important hub of the world’s cruise tourism.