Ports & destinations

French cruise destinations meet the Chinese cruise market

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 31 October 2018 31 October 2018

For the second year in a row, a French delegation composed of cruise-club executives from three main French Atlantic ports (Valérie Conan/Le Havre Cruise Club, Laurence Bouchardie/Bordeaux Cruise Club and Guillaume Henry/Cherbourg Cruise Club) including one representative of the Mediterranean region promoting 12 ports (Anne-Marie Blum/Var Provence Cruise Club) have attended the Seatrade Cruise Asia Pacific held in Baoshan, Shanghai from 23-24 October.

This business trip, organised over a week period by Atout France, the French government Tourism agency, has enabled the French cruise club representatives to schedule meetings with major travel agencies of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, alongside their participating at Seatrade Asia. The objectives of this trip were to get insight about the evolution of the Chinese market, to identify the key contacts, to highlight France’s great offer in terms of maritime and river cruise ports, both for transit, turnaround and varied excursion experiences, as well as the immense potential of pre- and post-cruise stays available for the Chinese cruise guests.

An opportunity to network with cruise industry professionals and weave close relationships with all the travel agencies professionals encountered in order to deliver the best offers and services for their customers.

Likewise, compared to the previous visit of the delegation last year, Chinese professionals have highlighted the intense growth of the cruise market over the last 10 years, and especially to the Mediterranean being the first destination to be quoted. Northern Europe, however, is already well identified and attracts an increasing number of visitors.

From the meetings and exchanges the French cruise clubs’ delegation had with the professionals of the travel industry, hereunder are some of the first lessons learned:

– All brands represented by travel agents are present on the French territory, either in transit or on turnaround.

– There are still difficulties to obtain visas for Chinese citizens to visit some countries that need to be solved.

– Following the 10-year growth of the Asian market, not only in volume of departures from China to Asia, but also for fly-cruises packages, according to a majority of travel agencies who are very optimistic about the future, they confirm that Europe is definitely a major destination (2nd most popular after Asia), that offers the greatest potential and attracts repeaters, already familiar with cruise holidays in Asia.

– Ports and destinations must get ready to welcome this market and deliver quality services up to the expectations of their guests.

Ashore:

– Tailor-made excursions with Chinese speaking cruise guides.

– More middleclass Chinese passengers want to experience with the locals.

Shopping is still trendy:

– new services should be implemented locally for the Chinese market with the possibility of payment by WeChat.

– Cruise lines should develop new homeports to widen the variety of destinations.

On board:

– Cruise lines must deliver services dedicated to this market.

– Chinese speaking guides and crew to solve the language barrier (reception, services, catering…)

– High quality Chinese cuisine and food is key.

Interest in the French destinations goes far beyond the Cruise product only, as many Chinese visitors combine their cruise experience with a pre- or post-stay, offering great prospects for territorial spin-offs. To achieve this, however, the specific needs of Chinese customers will have to be considered.

And their expectations are more precise than one would think. Hence, the approach of the French delegation was warmly welcomed by all interlocutors, who are already familiar with the French tourist assets such as the many UNESCO sites for instance, and they rely on their support to identify new products, in order to satisfy their customers in search of immersive and authentic experiences, off the beaten tracks.

Thus, each destination has been able to assert its own attractions, but more importantly, the relationship is being forged for a longer-term collaboration.

CCYIA presents six point list to revitalise Chinese cruise market

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 22 October 2018 22 October 2018

Compared with the situation of rapid development in the past five years, China’s cruise market has undergone significant changes in 2017 and 2018 with a slower growth of the number of passengers and sailings, said Zheng Weihang, executive vice president and secretary general of China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association (CCYIA).

"As China’s cruise industry enters the market adjustment period, the cruise industry needs to think thoroughly about the important issues in six aspects, including increasing efforts to promote inbound tourism of international cruises, spreading the concept of cruise destinations, improving onshore travel itineraries, establishing the system of cruise classification, opening medium-long routes and developing local cruise," he said in a statement.

Xiao Baojia, chairman of the Asia Cruise Academy of Shanghai Maritime University, various ministries and commissions of the central government have issued a number of policies to support the cruise industry in 2018.

The biggest highlight that substantial breakthrough may be made in eliminating many obstacles hindering the local cruise development in the next two to three years by relying on the advantages of the new policies for Hainan’s reform and opening up and the development of free trade zones.

At the same time, it is also possible that important progress may be made for cruise ship building in China with continuous policy support.

In terms of the market, Xiao Baojia is optimistic about the development potential of China’s coastal cruise and inland river cruise. At present, three major coastal areas, including North China, East China and South China, are preparing to upgrade the small and medium-sized cruise ships to develop the marine leisure tourism industry.

Local governments along the Yangtze River and Yunnan Province are also actively promoting the infrastructure construction and product market development for inland river cruise.

As pointed out by Xu Juehui, general manager of Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal, under the overall circumstance of slower growth of China’s market this year, many industrial hotspots are still very eye-catching.

Cruise ports in South China are providing more innovative routes and more comfortable cruise experience, continuously releasing the potential of passenger sources and persistently heating up the market in South China.

A pilot ticket system has laid a good foundation for the sustainable and healthy development of the cruise market, and the implementation plan for Hainan to deepen reform has brought a number of innovative policies for cruise management to become a new driving force for China’s cruise industry development.

With the rapid development of the international inland river market, the Yangtze River cruise is expected to become a new hot spot for domestic cruise tourism. Chinese cruise ship factories are taking advantages of this trend to solve the difficulty in luxury cruise ship construction and help boost the starting of domestic cruise ship construction.

Var Provence Cruise Club celebrates 10th anniversary

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 10 October 2018 10 October 2018

The Var Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the General Council representatives celebrated together with a party of 100 guests the 10th anniversary of the Var Provence Cruise Club on September 6th 2018 in La-Londe-Les-Maures.

With an increase of almost 90% in number of passengers welcomed in the Var Provence ports in 10 years, it is an average of 300000 visitors who disembark each year and discover the most popular area after Paris!

Launched in 2008 by the Var Chamber of Commerce and the General Council, the Var Provence Cruise club has been working for 10 years to develop cruise business acting as a single point of contact that promotes the Var area as a major touristic destination for cruise passengers and by federating the local actors to ease the emergence of positive initiatives. Making Var Provence a must-see Mediterranean cruise destination!

VPCC and all its partners (Chamber of Commerce, local authorities, tourism committees, and tourist professionals) are working to ensure that the economic growth of the cruise sector expresses its full potential, to meet the Cruise Lines companies and passengers needs and expectations.

With two leading cruise ports, Toulon Bay and Saint-Tropez, the Var Provence network boasts now 10 cruise ports. The area can accommodate cruise ships of all sizes at berth in Toulon Bay (Toulon and La Seyne-sur-Mer) and at anchor in small typical Provencal boutique ports (Saint-Cyr-Sur-Mer, Sanary-sur-Mer, Bandol, Les Embiez, Le Lavandou, Cavalaire, Saint- Tropez, Fréjus and Saint-Raphaël). With its new finger pier project, the Ports of Toulon Bay will be able to welcome the world's largest ships by 2022.

With their own specificities and identity, the 10 cruise port destinations can be part of the same itinerary as well as sites of excursions from another nearby port of the Var Provence network. The Provencal hinterland offers a large choice of exclusive experiential and immersive excursions and ecotours dedicated to cruise passengers. The VPCC has developed a catalogue of more than 100 tailor-made cruise excursions ideas in partnership with tourist offices and leisure providers.

The Var Provence Cruise Club is still working on developing new excursion ideas but also capitalising on the success of its Cruise Friendly Welcome Quality Label which ensures a warm welcome to the passengers by enhancing their experience ashore helping local businesses to attract new customers. Finalist in the “Best marketing initiative of the year” category at the Seatrade Cruise Awards 2017, Cruise Friendly was initially deployed in partnership with 72 shopkeepers and leisure providers in the cities of Toulon and La Seyne in 2013. It is today acclaimed by other Var Provence ports reaching a total of 431 shops in seven Cruise Friendly Cities: Bandol, Sanary, Toulon, La Seyne-sur-Mer, Hyères, Le Lavandou and Saint-Raphaël.

The VPCC is working to extend its brand to include the most visited hinterland sites and to other ports in France as well, but not only, having been approached by leading ports in other destinations of the world which are interested in implementing this great initiative locally.

The VPCC is already involved in 2 other projects: the Region Sud Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur cruise branch program which brings together Marseille Provence, French Riviera and Var Provence Cruise Clubs on new common grounds in terms of cruise marketing promotions and the European program Interreg Marittimo which is called ItinERA: involving French and Italian ports’ destinations (Var Provence, Corsica, Liguria, Sardinia and Tuscany) in order to increase their cruise competitiveness offering a range of eco-friendly excursions based on sustainable development and biodiversity aiming to build two cross-border cruise itineraries.

MedCruise launches working group to promote the Black Sea

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 19 October 2018 19 October 2018

MedCruise, the organisation which promotes Mediterranean as a cruise destination, said it has launched a working group to promote the Black Sea towars the cruise industry.

Formation of the working group composed by MedCruise members from Black Sea region comes after the action plan signed by Port of Odessa, Port of Varna, Port of Constanta and Port of Burgas during the 52nd MedCruise General Assembly held in Malta in May 2018.

This action plan highlighted the absence of the maritime cruise ships in the Black Sea in 2017 and the slow comeback of the cruise ships in the region on a three years period of time as well as the cruise itineraries that are already locked for the cruise session 2019-20, MedCruise said in a statement.

Qatar's cruise season starts with the arrival of Boudicca

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 10 October 2018 10 October 2018

The 2018/19 cruise season kicked off in Qatar with the Boudicca docking at Doha Port last week. The season, which continues until April 2019, is expected to see nearly double the number of cruise ships that arrived in the 2017/18 season.

Of the 43 ships scheduled to call in Doha Port, 10 ships will be making their maiden calls to Qatar. And, with the majority of calls being megaships, this season is set to be the biggest yet for Qatar, bringing 140,000 visitors to Qatar's shores – nearly triple those that arrived last year.

In addition to being the biggest yet, this season will witness a significant first for Qatar: the arrival of two megaships at Doha Port at the same time – an occurrence that is due to happen a total of five times throughout this season.

Hassan Al Ibrahim, Acting Chairman at QTA commented, "It continues to be an exciting period of rapid growth for Qatar’s cruise tourism sector, which will witness more firsts this season. We are pleased to see our local partners join in our efforts to develop services and products specifically for cruise visitors. They are an ideal complement to our partnerships with leading international agencies and we look forward to drawing a growing number of visitors to Qatar's shores to enjoy the country's pleasant winter weather." He added, "These developments highlight the opportunities for investors to develop authentic and memorable experiences that reinforce Qatar’s position as a hub to discover."

QTA and Qatar's major transport services provider, Mowasalat recently signed an MoU to further develop tourist transport services, ensuring the growth in cruise tourism demand is matched with flexible and reliable transportation. QTA also continues to work with local and international partners to carefully plan, develop and manage the cruise terminal facilities, infrastructure and operations needed to achieve sustainable growth. Qatar is expecting to receive 200,000 cruise visitors by the 2019/20 season and has plans to turn Doha to a turnaround port.

QTA recently signed an agreement with the German AIDA Cruises and the Italian Costa Cruises to place Qatar on the two companies' winter itineraries as well as to cooperate in designing special promotion packages for their passengers. As part of the agreements, luxury ship AIDAprima and Costa Mediterranean are expected make their maiden trips to Doha Port this season. Between them, the two cruise lines will bring up to a quarter of this season's passengers to Doha.