The beginning of 2024 marks an important moment for both China's emerging cruising industry and global cruising. As Adora Magic City departed on its maiden voyage, it paves the way for luxury cruising based in China and potentially for a new cruise shipbuilding market. 

It's the first-ever luxury cruise ship built entirely in China at international standards. Over the past few days, the Chinese vessel has kicked off its final trials before it sets off on its maiden voyage starting on January 1, 2024.

The inaugural voyage welcomed over 3,000 passengers, both from China and international destinations. The maiden route covers Shanghai-Jeju-Nagasaki-Fukuoka-Shanghai, spanning six nights and seven days.

The voyage quickly gained popularity among travelers. Ticket prices range from approximately 2,000-3,000 yuan per person to over 10,000 yuan, with substantial bookings reported. According to Trip.com, tickets were sold out on the platform since mid-November.

The full-year schedule for the large cruise ship has already been released. On platforms like Trip.com, related products for the remaining months are still available.

Fueled by the commercial launch of the Adora Magic City, interest in international cruise travel has surged on multiple Chinese online travel platforms. On Trip.com, bookings for cruise trips increased by 230 percent month-on-month during the three-day New Year holidays, which concluded on Monday.

In the future, the Adora Magic City will embark on cruise routes from China to Southeast Asian countries, offering a diverse range of travel and vacation options that include long, medium, and short-haul journeys. A maritime Silk Road cruise route is also expected to be introduced at an opportune time.

China’s “floating name card at sea”

When it comes to numbers, China’s first homegrown cruise ship was delivered in Shanghai on November 4 after five years of construction. With a gross tonnage of 135,500 and a length of 323.6 meters, the ship can accommodate up to 5,246 passengers in 2,125 guest rooms. 

The cruise ship features 26 restaurants and bars, offering over 400 dishes that blend Eastern and Western cuisines, and a theater that can accommodate a thousand people.

The launch of the Adora Magic City has positioned China as the fifth country globally capable of building large cruise ships.

The interior décor and rigorous testing of the ship, with the largest shopping center at sea thanks to a strategic alliance with duty-free behemoth China Duty Free Group, and it will be the first cruise ship to be covered by a 5G network thanks to its collaboration with Shanghai Telecom.

In addition, the ship will have the first live comedy theater at sea in conjunction with Mahua FunAge, a prominent Chinese comedy film and stage play production firm.

A brand-new song and dance spectacle offered by Selection International Entertainment, "Marco Polo: An Enchanted Love Tale," is expected to enrich the experience of guests.

Meanwhile, on the cruise liner, a new production show called "Magic City," which shares the same name as the ship, will debut, presenting the city's varied "kaleidoscope" culture on stage.

The ship's name is also an interesting choice, as it corresponds to Shanghai's nickname "modu", or the "magic city.” "Modu" is commonly used by Shanghai's youngsters. In Chinese, "mo" denotes magic and can also mean fascinating, whereas "du" means city or capital. It recreates the charm of the city Shanghai at sea by rebuilding a "maritime city" with an East-meets-West style.

According to the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism, the name reflects the ship's "Shanghai design" and "Shanghai manufacturing" identities, as well as an ambition to promote “haipai” (Shanghai-style) culture and the inheritance of the city's cultural essence.

Shanghai is also Asia's largest cruise home port and the world's fourth-largest. Between 2008 and 2020, Shanghai received around 3,000 cruise liners, resulting in 15 million trips from domestic and international tourists. In late March, the Ministry of Transport approved the restart of international cruise operations in Shanghai and Shenzhen on a trial basis.

A breakthrough in nation’s shipbuilding

Originally known as the H1508, construction began on the vessel in October 2019. It has been built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding – a subsidiary of the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation(CSSC). The firm was contracted to make the ship in conjunction with Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri.

The vessel boasts the traditional configuration of Western-built cruise ships, including multiple restaurants and bars, a huge theater, and several entertainment options. It also claims to flaunt some unique features that set it apart from the original platform. The most intriguing one is an enormous shopping arcade – the brand says it's the largest one in the world.

Fancy as it may be, why is Adora Magic City such a big deal for China？

China is the largest shipbuilding nation in the world. But large cruise ships had remained the only type of advanced, high-value-added ships that China had yet to produce.

Large cruise ships, often called floating cities, are among the most difficult and intricate ships to make, due to the required technologies and the complexity of the manufacturing process, requiring millions of parts from thousands of suppliers.

For example, the H1508 needs 25 million parts, or about five times more than the C919 aircraft, China’s home-grown passenger jet, and 13 times that of the Fuxing high-speed trains, according to CSSC.

Making a cruise ship and developing an industry from scratch is no small undertaking for China. The construction of the H1508 required the import of numerous crucial production equipment, characterized by their large size, high precision, and extensive processing areas, posing stringent demands on customs clearance, according to media reports.

The Adora Magic City then represent breakthroughs in both China’s shipbuilding industry and its advanced-manufacturing efforts in general, as the nation continues to take critical steps towards boosting its self-reliance in critical industries.

As European shipyards have dominated the cruise-ship-building industry for decades, the international standards were essentially established and evolved there. The joint ventures between CSSC, Carnival and Fincantieri also encapsulate China’s ambitious foray into the cruise ship industry.

Moreover, the shipbuilding industry is often referred to as the "crown jewel of integrated industries". It involves a multitude of components, a lengthy supply chain and high levels of industrial interconnectivity, encompassing over 50 different sectors, including steel, nonferrous metals, machinery and electronics, said the Beijing-based China Machinery Industry Federation.

China's shipbuilding industry is expected to continue to lead the global race in 2023, with orders for new ships across the global industry reached 41.49 million compensated gross tonnage in 2023, according to the latest data released by the London-based shipping services provider Clarkson Plc.

Chinese shipbuilders took the lead with a 59 percent share globally, followed by South Korea at 24 percent.

China's shipbuilding industry has increasingly focused on domestic self-reliance, particularly in its industrial and supply chains. In this market, efficiency is critical as shorter delivery times for vessels often attract more orders from shipowners, experts noted. By producing materials domestically, Chinese shipyards have not only stimulated the growth of their industrial chain but also increased their profitability.  

Setting sail in huge cruise ship market

As the Adora Magic City starts commercial operation, China isn’t waiting either. It is already building an even bigger version of the vessel - a 142,000-ton cruise ship - is set to enter commercial service as soon as 2025. 

Since Costa Cruises became the first international cruise line to set sail from China in 2006, its cruise industry has grown exponentially.

Cruises have become increasingly popular in big metropolises such as Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou, as well as relatively smaller ones such as Chengdu, Qingdao and Xiamen.

China has been seen for years as having the potential to become the world’s largest cruise market, possibly by 2030, with between 8 million and 10 million patrons per year, according to the most recent data available estimates by the Shanghai International Shipping Institute from 2015.

According to a 2018 directive on boosting cruise travel by 10 ministries, China’s cruise market is expected to see 14 million patrons per year by 2035.

It is anticipated that with the debut of the Adora Magic City, China’s cruise travel market will experience rapid recovery this year, further boosting consumption.

From 2006 to 2019, foreign cruise brands deployed a total of 23 cruise ships to China, spending 3.6 billion yuan ($530 million) annually on marketing, as the Chinese market grew at an annual rate of 52 percent. This growth indicates robust demand in the Chinese cruise tourism market, and from 2026 onward, Chinese cruise tourism is expected to enter its second golden development period, according to China Tourism Group.

In 2019, China's international cruise market was already ten times that of Japan's, only surpassed by the US, the world's largest cruise market.

Before the pandemic, Chinese travelers used to be the biggest contributors to global tourism. A total of 155 million Chinese tourists travelled abroad in 2019, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and they spent about US$254.6 billion a year. That equates to an average of US$1,643 per traveller.

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI 

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

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