The cruise economy has been hailed as the "gold industry floating on the golden waterway". In the future, the construction and operation of domestic large cruise ships will lead the new voyage of the cruise economy and further open up the high-end market of high technology and high added value.
■夏金彪
Recently, the second domestic large cruise ship that has attracted much attention has been undocked at the No. 2 dock of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding in China and began to carry the final assembly. This marks the basic formation of the mainland's large-scale cruise ship design and construction capacity.
Compared with the first domestic cruise ship "Aida Modu" delivered in November last year, the second domestic cruise ship has a larger "size" and more advanced equipment, which has increased by 6,400 tons to 141,900 tons, the total length has increased by 17.4 meters to 341 meters, the number of guest rooms has also increased by 19 to 2,144, and 2 sets of desulfurization systems and 5 sets of advanced environmental protection system equipment have been added, which makes the second domestic cruise ship a more environmentally friendly "mobile maritime city".
Large cruise ships are internationally recognized high-tech and high value-added ship products, and are known as the "crown jewels" of the shipbuilding industry together with large LNG carriers and aircraft carriers. In the past, almost all of the world's large cruise ships were built in Europe, mainly monopolized by the four major shipping companies: the Italian Fincantieri Group, the German Meyer shipyard, the French Atlantic shipyard and the Finnish Massa shipyard.
At present, large cruise ships are also the world's largest and most complex single electromechanical products. Taking the first domestic cruise ship "Aida Modu" as an example, the number of parts and components is as high as 25 million, which is equivalent to 5 times that of the C919 large aircraft and 13 times that of the Fuxing high-speed railway, and the cable is more than 4,300 kilometers, which is about the distance from Shanghai to Lhasa. The 24-storey Aida Modu has 2,125 guest rooms and can carry more than 5,000 passengers.
The mass design and construction of domestic large cruise ships has filled the gap of large cruise ships in the mainland, and the mainland has become the fifth country in the world with the ability to build large cruise ships. As a result, the mainland has the ability to build aircraft carriers, large LNG carriers and large cruise ships at the same time, and has become a veritable shipbuilding industrial powerhouse.
As the upstream of the cruise economy industry chain, large cruise ships not only reflect a country's shipbuilding strength, but also drive the development of the whole industry chain of the country's cruise economy. The cruise economy is known as the "gold industry floating on the golden waterway", with its long industrial chain, strong driving force and wide spillover range, which is of great significance to promote the expansion of domestic demand and release the consumption potential.
The whole industrial chain of the cruise economy can generally be divided into three parts: the upstream of the industry, the midstream of the industry, and the downstream of the industry, namely, the design and construction of cruise ships in the upstream, the cruise operation management and related supporting industries in the midstream, and the cruise port operation in the downstream.
Previously, the mainland was more focused on the "consumer" link in the cruise economic chain, which is also known as the "passing economy". Today, the mainland is guided by the construction and operation of domestic large cruise ships, which has further leveraged the development of the entire industrial chain of the cruise economy. According to the research forecast of "Cruise Ship's Economic Contribution to China" jointly released by the Cruise Yacht Branch of China Communications and Transportation Association and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the overall economic contribution of cruise ships to China is expected to reach 550 billion yuan by 2035.
It is understood that on January 1 this year, the first domestic large cruise ship "Aida Modu" set sail from Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Port and started commercial operation. At present, the "Aida Modu" is only deployed and operated in the home port of Shanghai, and the main customer groups covered are consumers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. With the improvement of operational capacity, it is expected to deploy in other ports in the future and explore the Maritime Silk Road route.
Large cruise ships often drive the development of the high-end cruise market, and their "gold absorption ability" is relatively strong. If the average ticket price of a large cruise ship is about 4,000 yuan/person, under normal circumstances, there are 5,000 passengers on each voyage, the turnover amount of a large cruise ship should be 20 million yuan, and if there are about 70 voyages throughout the year, the annual revenue will be 1.4 billion yuan.
For a long time, foreign-funded cruise ships have always occupied the main share of the high-end market of the mainland cruise economy, but with the operation of large domestic cruise ships and the increase in the proportion of Chinese-funded cruise ships, the high-end market of the cruise economy in the future may present a parallel situation of Chinese-funded cruise ships and foreign-funded cruise ships.
At present, the mainland has become the world's second largest cruise market, second only to the United States. According to the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Cruise Economy in the Mainland" jointly issued by the Ministry of Transport, the National Development and Reform Commission and other ten ministries and commissions, by 2035, the mainland cruise market will become one of the most dynamic markets in the world, and the annual cruise passenger traffic is expected to reach 14 million.
Since 2023, the Ministry of Transport has issued the "Plan for the Orderly Pilot Resumption of International Cruise Transportation", the Shanghai Municipal Government has launched the "Shanghai Action Plan for Promoting the High-quality Development of the International Cruise Economy (2023-2025)", and Qingdao has issued the "Support Measures for the High-quality Development of Cruise Tourism in Qingdao...... A series of policies from the central to the local level have released positive signals of development. In the future, with the mass production and operation of domestic large cruise ships, the cruise economy will usher in rapid development, and the mainland is expected to achieve the goal of the world's largest cruise market ahead of schedule.
Image source of this article: photo.com
Chief Producer丨Wang Hui and Che Haigang
Producer丨Li Piguang, Wang Yu, Liu Weimin
Editor-in-Chief丨Mao Jinghui Editor丨Zou Duo