On May 15, the National Immigration Administration held a press conference to issue an announcement on the full implementation of the visa-free entry policy for foreign tour groups on cruise ships.
Since May 15, foreign tour groups (2 or more) that take a cruise ship and receive it through a domestic travel agency can enter the whole group without a visa from the cruise ports of 13 cities including Tianjin, Dalian, Liaoning, Shanghai, Lianyungang, Jiangsu, Wenzhou and Zhoushan, Zhejiang, Xiamen, Fujian, Qingdao, Shandong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Haikou, Hainan and Sanya. municipalities) and the city of Beijing.
In order to support the development of cruise tourism, seven cruise ports in Dalian, Lianyungang, Wenzhou, Zhoushan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beihai and other places have been added to the ports applicable to China's transit visa-free policy, which is convenient for foreign passengers who meet the conditions of China's transit visa-free policy to take cruise ships.
In a word, it can be summed up as: foreign tourist groups take cruises and enter the country visa-free for 15 days! This initiative will greatly stimulate the development of the domestic cruise industry!
It is worth noting that there is currently and only one cruise port in Guangzhou, which is the Nansha International Cruise Home Port, which can dock the world's largest cruise ships.
It is understood that the Nansha International Cruise Home Port was officially opened in November 2019, which is the first cruise home port in China to achieve seamless connection with the subway, and is also one of the largest and most comprehensive cruise home port complexes in Asia, with cultural demonstration bases, duty-free shopping centers, 24-hour entertainment, leisure tourism and other formats, and the number of port inspection channels ranks among the top in China, becoming a world-class new landmark on the water, filling the gap in Guangzhou's cruise infrastructure.
At that time, Nansha International Cruise Terminal had opened 9 routes to Hong Kong, China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and other places, with a total of 12 cruise destinations (including Hong Kong, China, Naha City, Okinawa, Miyako Island, Yaeyama Islands, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Da Nang, Ha Long Bay, Manila, Boracay Island, Subic Bay in the Philippines), and was the cruise port with the most Southeast Asian routes in China.
Unfortunately, due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Nansha International Cruise Terminal suspended cruise-related business in 2020. At the same time, Dream Cruises' World Dream has also officially decided to suspend sailing from Nansha International Cruise Terminal in Guangzhou.
With the end of the epidemic, when Nansha cruise ships will resume sailing has become a matter of concern to everyone.
At the 4th Guangzhou Cruise Development Roundtable in September last year, relevant leaders said that the Nansha cruise home port is expected to fully resume operation early next year.
Now, 2024 is about to enter the middle of the year, but the Nansha international cruise home port has still not resumed.
The tribe learned through the relevant person in charge that since the end of the epidemic, the Nansha cruise home port has been actively promoting the resumption of sailing, due to the suspension of sailing for 4 years, the facilities and equipment in the home port need to be updated and maintained, and the channel also needs to be desilted; At the same time, due to the impact of Japan's nuclear contaminated seawater, the quarantine and inspection standards for entry need to comply with new policies and regulations, and it is expected to resume operation in the near future.
In addition, on the afternoon of May 7, Sun Zhiyang, mayor of Guangzhou, went to Nansha District to conduct a special investigation on accelerating the high-quality development of Guangzhou's cruise economy. He stressed the need to strengthen overall scheduling, make every effort to provide service guarantees, and accelerate the opening of the Nansha International Cruise Home Port.
Subsequently, on May 10, the Nansha Planning and Self-Administration Bureau issued a public announcement on the application for temporary sea use for the maintenance dredging project of Guangzhou Nansha International Cruise Terminal.
The applicant is Guangzhou CCCC Cruise Home Port Investment and Development Co., Ltd., with a total area of 159.2552 hectares, the type of sea for transportation, and other open sea use, and the period of temporary sea use is 3 months.
Generally speaking, maintenance dredging projects are not yet met for berthing conditions, and the river dredging must be carried out at present, and the navigation can only be navigated after dredging.
Combined with the above signs, the opening of the Nansha international cruise home port is approaching!
As a "mobile maritime city", cruise tourism is expected to recover in the tourism industry. The resumption of the Nansha International Cruise Home Port is not only an important starting point for the implementation of the Nansha Plan, but also an important measure to help Nansha build a high-level open door to the outside world, promote innovative development, and create a high-quality living circle.
The Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism pointed out that the next step will be to consolidate the development of "cruise + business travel", and to build a world tourism consumption destination and promote the development of cruise tourism into the city's cultivation and construction of an international consumption center city.
The Nanshawan cruise home port business district is an important part of Guangzhou's cultivation and construction of an international consumption center. Nansha District will actively promote the development of the duty-free economy of Nansha International Cruise Home Port, promote local brand business leading enterprises to apply for duty-free business qualifications, introduce international duty-free shops, and explore the appropriate introduction of Hainan duty-free policy personal consumption quota into Nansha International Cruise Home Port Duty-free Shops, so as to further enrich the duty-free economy and build the duty-free industry into a new economic growth point.
Exploring the opening of port departure duty-free shops in international cruise home ports can not only effectively promote the return of consumption, but also stimulate new consumer demand. In the future, if the policy liberalizes duty-free for Chinese people, the shopping quota is increased, the commodity categories are liberalized, and the urban business points are expanded, the future development potential of Nansha's duty-free economy will be difficult to estimate.
Now that the resumption of sailing is imminent, combined with the high expectations of the official planning of the cruise ship home port, Nansha Bay, as one of the three pilot areas selected by the "Nansha Plan", will enter the second golden period of development and become a veritable world-class consumption function core carrying area, relying on the international cruise home port, gathering global high-end resources, linking the world through a fine "sea and land network", absorbing funds, resources, talents and technologies from all over the world, and the development of Nansha will also reach a new level in an all-round way.
Exhibit: Nansha Buraku
Source: Xinhua News Agency