After a slow resumption period, the international cruise market may begin to pick up at an accelerated pace in the spring of 2022.
Royal Caribbean Cruises announced a full resumption of operations by spring 2022; MSC Cruises plans to restart all cruise ships in phases by the end of 2022; Costa Cruises will continue to resume its fleet in an orderly and gradual manner in 2022; Ponlow Cruises' global operations have returned to pre-pandemic levels by September this year, with more voyages resuming next year.
All indications are that although the current epidemic challenges are still facing, the darkest hour has passed, and the international cruise industry may usher in a new inflection point of accelerated recovery in 2022.
During the National Day holiday, the departure of China Merchants Viking Cruises' first high-end cruise ship "China Merchants Etun" independently operated by China not only brought a surprise to the somewhat bland Chinese cruise market, but also allowed more people to see the promising prospects of domestic coastal cruise routes.
The pace of international cruises resuming has accelerated
Towards the end of 2021, the process of resuming international cruise ships is mostly more than halfway through.
As of November 3 this year, the royal Caribbean international cruise ship with a fleet of 25 launched cruise ships, 16 cruise ships have resumed operations, covering north American, European and Asian markets, and the overall capacity has recovered to 64%. Royal Caribbean capacity is expected to return to 72% by the end of November, with other cruise ships fully resuming by next spring.
The Oasis series' latest cruise ship, miracles of the sea, will be officially launched next year to join the Royal Caribbean global fleet. It is worth mentioning that Royal Caribbean recently launched a 275-day round-the-world cruise route. It will depart from Miami, USA on December 10, 2023, visiting more than 150 exciting destinations and 11 wonders of the world in 65 countries on seven continents, and completing the route back to Miami on September 10, 2024.
Royal Caribbean's Spectrum of the Seas officially resumed flights in Hong Kong
MSC Cruises, which currently has a total of 19 cruise ships, has gradually resumed sailing in different regions of the world from August 2020. As of November 4 this year, a total of 11 cruise ships have restarted operations in the East-West Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Middle East and North American markets, which means that more than half of MSC's Mediterranean Cruises fleet has resumed sailing.
Ms. Huang Ruiling, President of MSC Cruises China, told the National Tourism Network: "MSC Cruises' phased restart strategy has made another breakthrough, and recently obtained permission to resume flights in Brazil and South Africa, and the Southern Caribbean region is also about to restart, and will resume sailing at the end of December this year. We plan to expand the number of resumed cruise ships to 15 in the winter of 2021. By the end of 2022, the operation of all cruise ships of MSC's entire fleet will be restarted in phases. ”
Upcoming MSC Mediterranean "Glory" in China
Costa Cruises' fleet currently has 12 active cruise ships worldwide, and since the resumption of operations began in September last year, five vessels are currently operating in Europe, mainly in Italy's main port as their home port, to explore the East-West Mediterranean route.
According to reports, in 2022, Costa Cruises will continue to gradually carry out the resumption of the fleet in an orderly and responsible manner. During the winter of 2021-2022, Costa Cruises, as a partner of the Italian Pavilion at Expo Dubai, will take dubai as its home port to take visitors to the world's most celebrated cultural and technological feast, and in March 2022, Costa Toscana, Costa Cruises' second LNG-powered vessel, will be officially put into operation to visit the Western Mediterranean route.
The Costa Emerald docks at the port of Savona, Italy
Compared with large cruise lines, the market for small cruise lines that "turn around" is faster and easier to recover.
As a representative of small and high-end adventure cruises, Pangluo Cruises currently has a total of 13 cruise ships with an average full load of about 200 people. Zhang Jin, commercial marketing director of Pangluo Cruises in North Asia, told the National Tourism Network that since the resumption of flights in July 2020, by September this year, Pangluo Cruises' global business has returned to the pre-epidemic level. At present, Pangluo Cruises has resumed more than 90 voyages, and more will be in 2022. In the Asian market, in the second half of next year, it will take the lead in resuming flights in Japan and launching Okinawa island-hopping adventure routes.
The Pangluo cruise ship "Commander Xiagu" arrived at the geographical North Pole
"The demand of the travel market is developing from the mass market to the direction of small groups and customized tours. Because of the changing market demand, small boats are more acceptable than large cruise ships when offering more safe, small or private travel activities. In addition, many of Pangluo Cruises' light adventure product lines are niche or even exclusive, and the scarcity of products is more favored by high-end customers. Zhang Jin said.
The flexible battle against the "epidemic" promotes the rapid resumption of flights
In the special environment of the ongoing epidemic, risk avoidance and ensuring the safety of passengers and crew have become the top priority of cruise lines. Safety and controllability have become an important factor in the smooth resumption of cruise ships, and cruise companies have also made a lot of investment and efforts to this end.
Huang Ruiling said that safety is the premise and prerequisite for the resumption of the cruise industry. After the epidemic, MSC Cruises actively explored response plans, upgraded the already strict health and epidemic prevention measures on board, established an internal cross-functional working group, created a "blue ribbon" new crown expert group, and cooperated with many countries in the European region to jointly develop new health and safety regulations. MSC Cruises also strictly implements the MSC health and safety protocols that can be summarized as "6 100%", including 100% vaccination/nucleic acid test negative certificate, 100% improvement of emergency plan, 100% cleaning and disinfection, 100% new air pattern and other measures.
Huang Ruiling told the National Tourism Network: "Since the resumption of flights, we have brought more than 100,000 guests a worry-free maritime holiday, and there has not been a single cluster of cases on board, which also proves that with the support of strict epidemic prevention procedures and the joint prevention and control mechanism between ships and shores, the risk of the spread of the new crown virus can still be effectively controlled even in areas where the epidemic has recurred."
Royal Caribbean International Cruises has developed comprehensive health and safety initiatives for resumed cruise ships, including requiring all crew members and guests of vaccination age to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19; all children under vaccination age to undergo nucleic acid testing before boarding the cruise ship; equipping the cruise ship with a robust ventilation system, enhancing cleaning and disinfection, and reducing the number of passengers when the cruise ship initially resumes. The relevant health agreements are regulated in accordance with the requirements of different origin areas.
Royal Caribbean International Cruises will continue to work with health and government departments in several countries and territories around the world to discuss the requirements for all upcoming cruise ships. As the public health situation changes, health and safety measures will be assessed and guests and their travel companions will be informed of the latest developments.
In terms of ensuring the safety of crew, tourists and destination residents, Costa Cruises has developed safety procedures by a medical team composed of authoritative experts in the field of public health.
According to reports, Costa Cruises implements a strict crew management mechanism to ensure the safety and health of internal personnel; strengthens the prevention and control management on board, sets up body temperature detection devices, and the air circulation system delivers 100% fresh air; uses the ordering mode for on-board catering; increases the number of entertainment performances and activities and limits the number of people at the same time; is equipped with professional medical teams and medical equipment; optimizes shore travel arrangements to achieve destination peace of mind.
Zhang Jin told the National Tourism Network that many of Pangluo Cruises' fleet are new ships of little age, and the ships are loaded with the latest generation of air purification technology systems, which ensure that all cabins can have 100% fresh air, so that public areas can be ventilated at least 5 times per hour. This is also a prerequisite for Pangluo Cruises to get many local government departments to issue "passes" and obtain priority resumption of flights.
At present, each ship under the umbrella of Panglo Cruises is equipped with the most advanced on-board medical facilities, and these mobile medical laboratories allow the Pangluo medical team to quickly and accurately test infectious diseases, multiple digestive tract infections and so on on the ship.
Continue to deepen the layout of the Chinese market
Costa Cruises is the first international cruise line to enter the Chinese mainland, and has been operating in china and Asia for 15 years this year, and in 2022, Costa Cruises will continue to fully deploy the Chinese and Asian markets.
Costa Cruises said that in the past 15 years, Costa has established a deep relationship with travel agencies, partners and consumers in the Chinese market, and will continue to invest in and deepen the Chinese market. Before the epidemic, Costa Cruises was the only cruise company with year-round deployments at the three major cruise ports of Shenzhen, Shanghai and Tianjin, covering South China, East China and North China, and cooperating with seasonal operations in Qingdao, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Dalian, Sanya and other places. After the resumption of flights, Costa Cruises will also actively deploy in the Chinese market, and strive to bring more new and better ships here as soon as possible.
China is one of the most important strategic markets for Royal Caribbean International Cruises, and since it officially entered the Chinese market in 2009, it has been deeply rooted in the Chinese market. While the Chinese cruise market has yet to recover, Royal Caribbean remains confident in the Chinese market.
According to the latest China market deployment plan for 2022 announced by Royal Caribbean International Cruises, Spectrum ocean will continue to deploy in the three core home ports of Hong Kong, Tianjin and Shanghai, providing 65 easy short-haul routes of 2 to 4 nights and immersive in-depth tours of 5 to 8 nights. From 2022, Spectrum Ocean will continue to operate destinationless sailing routes at sea in Hong Kong; it will come to Tianjin for the first time from spring; and from summer it will return to Shanghai, where it made its maiden voyage. The deployment of hong Kong, Tianjin and Shanghai's three first-tier home ports will open up a new perspective on family travel and vacation for guests around the world.
For the Chinese market, Huang Ruiling said that this has always been an important strategic market for MSC Mediterranean Cruises. Although the cruise industry is still facing the challenges posed by the epidemic, its confidence in the potential of the Chinese market has not wavered.
As permitted by the public health situation and related policies, in 2022, the highly anticipated "luxury flagship" of tourists, the MSC Mediterranean Glory, will come to the Chinese cruise market. The 172,000-ton Honor will be the largest and most luxurious cruise ship in the Asian cruise market. This will also mark that MSC Cruises will lead the Chinese cruise industry into the "flagship era".
"Looking to the future, we believe that China will continue to be a hot land for the vigorous development of the cruise industry, and we also look forward to the Glory bringing new vitality to the market and helping the recovery and take-off of China's cruise industry again." Huang Ruiling told the National Tourism Network.
China has always been a key development market for Pangluo Cruises. Before the epidemic, pangluo cruises' customer base in the Chinese market was mainly business guests, mainly the MICE team charter business of 40 to 50 people. Zhang Jin told the National Tourism Network that as a representative of high-end adventure cruises, their customer base is concentrated in high-net-worth people who value products more, and these people are more concerned about the safety of cruise ships, product scarcity and the brand and strength of cruise companies.
It is gratifying and surprising that the customer base in the Chinese market has begun to increase the trend of individual bookings. According to Zhang Jin, after the United States announced its recognition of China's new crown vaccine last month, the booking consultation received by their team suddenly increased, and so far more than 200 people have booked product routes for next year and the following year.
Before the pandemic, Pangluo Cruises had 128 travel agency partners in China, including many customers who had been working together for a decade. Pangluo Cruises is very much looking forward to the early opening of China's outbound tourism market and can continue its previous cooperation with the industry.
The domestic coastal cruise ship market is on the rise
Today, most international cruise ships are still partially resumed in Europe and the United States, although many cruise companies have put the plan to resume flights in China in 2022 on the agenda, but combined with the epidemic prevention policies currently implemented in China, the resumption time of international cruise routes departing from Chinese ports is still full of uncertainty and difficult to predict.
In this context, the news that the first high-end cruise ship independently operated by China, the "China Merchants Etun", set sail in Shenzhen on October 1 this year and opened the "Shenzhen-Sanya-Shenzhen-Charming South China Sea Tour" route, which undoubtedly dropped a bombshell on the somewhat bland Chinese cruise market. This ice-breaking trip also allowed many people to see the promising prospects of domestic coastal cruise routes.
China Merchants Etun at the home port of Shekou Cruise Ship
China Merchants Viking Cruises, a subsidiary of China Merchants Etun Cruise, is a joint venture between China Merchants Shekou and Viking Cruises, a subsidiary of China Merchants Group. The "MerchantS Etun" cruise ship, formerly known as the luxury cruise ship "Viking Sun", has 465 full balcony rooms, can accommodate 930 guests, built in 2017, is a luxury cruise ship. After completing the change of registration and name in June this year, it officially became the first sea vessel of the China Merchants Viking Cruise Fleet. It is also the first high-end cruise ship to fly the five-star red flag and the first high-end cruise ship to be independently operated and managed by China. As of 15 November, the vessel has successfully operated 7 voyages (including experience voyages).
Since 2006, international cruise ships have begun to dock in Chinese ports, and China's cruise industry has entered a period of rapid growth. But cruise ships are still seen as part of international tourism, while domestic coastal tourist passenger transport has not developed as rapidly as Yangtze River cruises.
Before the "China Merchants Etun" was put into operation, the only ships engaged in coastal cruise ship business in China were "Dream of the South China Sea" and "Princess of Changle". Its route departs from Sanya Port, goes sightseeing in the waters of the Paracel Islands, lands on the island according to the situation, and then returns to Sanya Port to drop off passengers. However, due to the limitations of ship type and ship layout, equipment and facilities such as catering, life and entertainment cannot provide the same passenger comfort as international cruise ships. The emergence of the "Merchants Etun" has undoubtedly added a new bright color to the domestic coastal cruise ship passenger market.
Some experts said that compared with the international cruise routes departing from China, coastal cruise ships have more choices in route design, and it is easier to learn from the successful experience of mainstream cruise routes in Europe and the United States. Although coastal cruise routes are still subject to repeated epidemics from time to time, they can be restored in tandem with the domestic tourism industry, which is an option for China's cruise industry to turn crises into opportunities. In-depth study of coastal cruise ship routes will promote the development of China's cruise industry chain, promote the endogenous growth of China's cruise economy, and become a new bright spot in China's cruise industry.
Note: For a long time, at the domestic regulatory level, ships engaged in domestic tourist passenger transport have been called "cruise ships", such as the "Guidelines for the Normalization of epidemic Prevention and Control of Domestic Cruise Ships (Fourth Edition)" issued by the Ministry of Transport on August 4; and ships engaged in international tourist passenger transport have been called "cruise ships". This article is based on this.
Topic participation: Lei Rui, Oscar
Lead Writer: Sophie
Review: Lei Rui