Early yesterday morning
Royal Caribbean International Cruises' "Melody of the Seas"
The 275-day round-the-world journey arrived in Tianjin
More than 1,800 international visitors on board
Landing from Tianjin International Cruise Home Port
Start a two-day and one-night trip to Beijing and Tianjin——
Loading...
In September last year, the city fired the first shot of the full recovery of the northern cruise market, and the Tianjin international cruise home port has received more than 150,000 inbound and outbound passengers. The arrival of the "Melody of the Sea" further confirms the increasing activity of the cruise market in Tianjin, and promotes the increasingly strong atmosphere of integrated development of the port, industry and city in Tianjin, which is suitable for living, working and traveling.
01
Two days and one night
Feel the charm of China
The dragon dance on the pier is very lively, and the embarkation hall has very distinctive folk music performances, lion dances and other performances...... As soon as they got off the boat, many international tourists directly felt the warmth of Tianjin people and the charm of traditional Chinese culture. In the hall, "Clay Man Zhang" and "Lao Meihua" also set up booths with Chinese style to show Tianjin culture to visitors.
Han Mei, an American girl who has been learning Chinese, introduced her Chinese name when she saw reporters, and this time she was very excited to come to Tianjin with her parents: "China has a long history and culture, and I have thought it was cool since I was a child. I like to eat Chinese food, especially hot pot. I'm going to Beijing soon, I'm looking forward to it!" Han Mei also likes the clay dolls displayed on the scene of "Clay Man Zhang", and she can't put it down when she picks them up one by one and plays with them carefully.
Alex, from Italy, was fascinated by the live performance and exclaimed, "It's wonderful!" He said: "We learned a little bit about Chinese culture and the food here, and we are looking forward to going up the Great Wall and eating roast duck." ”
The 275-day round-the-world voyage of "Melody of the Seas" set sail from Miami, USA on December 10, 2023, crossing four oceans and stopping at more than 150 destinations in 60 countries. Tianjin is the 68th port visit and the 119th day of the round-the-world itinerary.
"During the Melody of the Seas call, we designed three tours for tourists. Disembarking on April 7 are Beijing Day Tour and Beijing Overnight Tour, who will visit Tiananmen Square, the Palace Museum, the Badaling Great Wall and other attractions. On April 8th, the tourists who disembarked from Tianjin will visit the Shijia Courtyard and the Ancient Culture Street to feel the strong Jincheng style. Liu Yanan, head of the cruise department of Coastline International Travel Service (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., introduced, "We have set up a service desk and booth on the cruise ship to vigorously promote Tianjin's tourism projects and attractions, and we can feel that most international tourists are more interested in historical and cultural attractions." ”
In addition, the border inspection, maritime affairs, customs, and financial departments have also introduced a variety of service guarantee measures to make international tourists travel in Beijing and Tianjin more smoothly.
Liu Yang, captain of the second team on duty at the Dongjiang Border Inspection Station of Tianjin Border Inspection Station, introduced that more than 800 passengers on this voyage applied for "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei 144-hour transit visa-free" or "24-hour transit visa-free", setting a new high in the number of people handling a single voyage of Tianjin Port transit visa-free, the number of people handled in a single day and the number of people handled at a single port, and it is also the largest number of foreign passengers entering and leaving the city and the largest number of voyages in and out of the country since the resumption of cruise ships. "In response to the needs of passengers who want to clear customs quickly, we will move the inspection window forward, send staff to South Korea in advance to board the ship, and use the cruise ship's transit time to complete the entry procedures in advance through sea verification, saving passengers about 5 hours of customs clearance time. ”
Bank of China Tianjin Branch has also set up a payment service center for overseas guests at the home port of Tianjin International Cruise Ship to provide professional, efficient and thoughtful payment services for international tourists, including foreign card cash withdrawal, QR code payment guidance, etc. "For example, we will have bilingual service staff to guide international tourists in need to complete the registration and binding of cards through electronic payment channels such as WeChat and Alipay, so that they can achieve barrier-free payment, and we can also recommend foreign-related hotels with foreign currency exchange services for international tourists, and introduce the exchange outlets of Bank of China near tourist attractions, so that international tourists can realize worry-free exchange in Tianjin." Bank of China Tianjin Branch on-site service staff said.
02
Do a good job in the cruise economy "big article"
The arrival of "Melody of the Seas" has witnessed the steady recovery of the cruise market in Jincheng, and the cruise economy in our city has also accelerated its development in such an atmosphere.
This year, the city has ushered in the "Europa", "Cuidedan" and other visiting port cruises, on March 23, the "Dream" cruise ship also returned to Tianjin to open a new season of home port routes. Also in March, Royal Caribbean International Cruises announced its 2025-2026 China route deployment plan, and its "Tribute to the Seas" plans to operate 32 home port routes in Tianjin from May 1 to October 8, 2025.
"Since the beginning of this year, we have welcomed 22 international cruise ships, with more than 68,000 inbound and outbound passengers. While serving the two homeport cruises of "Dream" and "Mediterranean" and the five visiting cruises during the year, we are also actively striving for the "Lembongan Song" of Lembongan Cruises to operate an international route with Tianjin as its home port within the year. Dong Zichen, deputy general manager of Tianjin International Cruise Home Port, said. This year, the city will strive to receive 100 international cruise ships and 300,000 inbound and outbound passengers.
In this regard, Liu Zinan, global senior vice president of Royal Caribbean Group and chairman of Asia, directly expressed his views with three "full confidence", he said: "After more than 10 years of hard work, China has become the second largest market for Royal Caribbean international cruises, second only to the United States. We have full confidence in the Chinese market, the prospects of China's reform and opening up, and the resilience of China's economy. ”
In his view, from the consumer level, cruise ships make life better, and from the economic level, international cruise companies drive outbound and inbound tourism, and can also drive the deployment and development of the whole industry chain in the local area.
From tourism consumption to material supply and port services, Tianjin is doing a good job in the cruise economy.
He Shurong, director of the Binhai New Area Culture and Tourism Bureau, said that this year, Binhai New Area will actively promote the integration of port, industry and city, optimize the business environment, strengthen the cruise industry, and develop the cruise economy. "We will empower all fields, increase policy support, and the cultural and tourism departments of the city, district and Dongjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone will work together to create high-quality products of 'cruise + shore upstream', launch the 'industry + territory' reward and subsidy policy, stimulate new momentum of the cruise economy, and actively hold this year's China Cruise Industry Development Conference." At the same time, it will promote the commercial supporting facilities of the cruise home port, create an immersive leisure and shopping scene of 'cruise + duty-free and bonded products', improve the supporting ship supply services, build a ship supply procurement platform, promote the supporting facilities of cruise production and education, establish a training base for cruise talents, promote local culture on cruise ships, and build cruise ships into a new carrier for spreading Chinese culture. ”
As the location of Tianjin's international cruise home port, Dongjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone is vigorously developing new quality productivity of cruise ships. Zhang Liqing, director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau of Dongjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone, said: "On the one hand, we plan to go to North China, Northwest China and other places to promote cruises, expand the cruise tourism consumption market, and actively connect the high-quality cultural and tourism resources of Binhai New Area and Dongjiang, hoping to launch new products such as 'cruise + performing arts, cruise + scenic spots, cruise + accommodation', and promote the local transformation of cruise consumption in the form of joint ticket packages." On the other hand, it is planned to excavate and extend the cruise industry chain, vigorously develop the cruise ship supply and distribution business, build a global warehouse for the supply of cruise materials in Dongjiang, give full play to the advantages of the special customs supervision zone 'inside and outside the customs', provide a carrier for the expansion and development of ship supply, and create a cruise economic development cluster. ”
Source: Tianjin Daily reporter Wan Hong Photography Wu Di Zhang Lei Ma Cheng