Development of Guangzhou Cruise Industry Further Accelerated

Kuang Zhanting

Guangzhou Nansha International Cruise Home-Port Operation and Management Co., Ltd was officially inaugurated. The company, jointly established by Guangzhou Port Business and Tourism Co., Ltd. (wholly-owned subsidiary of Guangzhou Port Group)and CCCC Urban Investment Holding Co.,Ltd., will be responsible for daily operation management after the completion of Nansha International Cruise Home Port.

Nansha International Cruise Home Port will test trial berthing in October 2019 and be opened for operation during the 14th China Cruise Industry Development Conference in November 2019.

Build a Cruise Industrial Chain

Nansha International Cruise Home Port in Nansha new area of Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Area is located in the geogeometric center of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. The total

planning uses the 1600m shoreline, the overall floorage is about 760,000 square meters, and four 100,000-225,000 gross ton cruise berths will be built, which can berth 225,000 GT cruise ships. The project will build the terminal, terminal commerce, seafarers' club, sailorhome,150-meter ultra-high shipping center,etc., all of which will become one of the largest cruise home-ports in Asia. The total length of the shoreline in the first phase of the project under construction is 770 meters, and it is proposed to build a 100,000 GT cruise berth, a 22.5 million GT cruise ship berth and the terminal of 60,000 square meter covered area with an annual throughput of 750,000 passengers.At present, the main body of the terminal has been capped, the appearance project has been basically completed, and it has entered the stage of internal decoration.

The establishment of the operation company is designed to be fully responsible for the production,technology, safety, information,public affairs management of Nansha International Cruise Home-Port, and creating Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's model home port. Using the advantages of Nansha International Cruise Home-Port in location, market, route, policy and so on,Nansha cruise home port will be built into a model home port, hub home port,functional home port, safe home port and open home port, which will make positive contributions to the development of Guangzhou cruise industry and the construction of the international shipping hub.

Guangzhou cruise economy began in November 2015, when the “Virgo”cruise ship set sail. In 2016, Guangzhou made use of Nansha port area Phase III container terminal to substantially engage in international cruise business, cultivate cruise market and promote cruise culture. According to statistics, in 2016-2018, a total of 320 international cruise ships were safely berthed, receiving 1.21 million passengers coming in and going out of the port, and the throughput of cruise passengers ranked third in China. In 2018, in particular, with the overall decline of 1.2% in the number of cruise passengers in China and the 23%reduction in the number of cruise voyages berthing in Guangzhou, Guangzhou Port still achieved a 19% growth in the number of passengers.

In order to promote the construction of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao cruise home-port cluster and coordinate to boost Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's cruise ship industry chain to a new level, Guangzhou Port will further improve the waterway guarantee measures for cruise ships entering and leaving the Pearl River Estuary,continue to carry out the deep water channel widening and dredging project,and realize the two-way navigation of 150,000-ton ships as soon as possible.It will develop cruise upstream and downstream industrial chain, build cruise design, construction, repair, maintenance,tourism, supply, talent training,information services, insurance, exhibition,trade show and other cruise industry ecological circle; develop “Greater Bay Area cruise ship + cruise tourism”, “cruise+ characteristic onshore tour”, “marine cruise tourism + island tourism” and other leisure tourism products.

Support Cruise Headquarters Economy

In order to promote the sustainable development of cruise economy,“Supporting Measures for Promoting Cruise Industry Development in Guangzhou Nansha New Area (Free Trade Zone)” and “Supporting Measures for Promoting Tourism Industry Development in Guangzhou Nansha New Area (Free Trade Zone)” were officially implemented this year.

According to the relevant measures,step support will be given to new cruise ships taking Nansha as the maiden voyage home port in line with the number of voyages. First of all, the maiden voyage support of cruise companies can reach up to 1.2 million yuan, and the new route with Nansha as the port of departure can be supported with 1 million yuan.Secondly, by giving subsidies to shore power services, the maximum amount of support for enterprises can reach 1 million yuan per year.

At the same time, for impacts of delay of cruise ship, reduction of voyage,cancellation of voyage, change of port and so on, subsidies will be given to the insurance cost of the cruise company or travel agency for passengers, and the annual support amount of each cruise company or travel agency can reach 1 million yuan. In addition, for world-class cruise companies that settle in Nansha,they will receive up to 5 million yuan in support reward at one time, and travel agencies that organize tourists to take cruise ships in Nansha will receive up to 2 million yuan a year. Tourism enterprises that have been newly awarded 5A level tourist attractions (spots) can be rewarded with 10 million yuan at one time, and the newly rated five-star hotels can be awarded a one-time reward of 5 million yuan.

Nansha will continue to explore,plan and launch the new route of “Zheng He's Voyage to the West”, create new models of cross-sector development,such as “Cruise + Airplane”, “Cruise+ High-Speed Railway”, “Cruise+ Scenic Area”, etc., to promote the overall development of the tourism industry; and build a diversified tourism product system including cultural history,relax on holiday and cruise ship by relying on characteristic advantages of Greater Bay Area and the status of the international shipping center and develop high-speed railway “one-way multistation” tourism product; promote the communication and docking of Guangzhou and Hong Kong and the Shenzhen cruise home-ports, complement each other’s advantages, mutually send the source of tourists, and gradually construct the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao cruise home-port cluster in a bid to promote the industrial chain of the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to a new stage.