It has been reported that Qiantang Airways Industry of Zhejiang, a Hangzhou-based airline company, is chartering an ice-class cruise ship from the polar expedition specialist Amazing Cruises & Travel for an exclusive Antarctic tour. Alan Lam reports.

In recent years, the number of Chinese visiting this continent has shown the biggest growth. They now made up 9% of the total visitor number, as compared to only 0.2% ten years ago. The Chinese are now the third largest human Antarctic visitor group, after the USA and Australia.

It is expected that they may become the largest in five years. The cruise charter market in China, led by online giants, is now big and intricate. Very often an online company will charter a vessel, sell the package to travel agents who in turn repackage the product and sell it back to the online agents for distribution.

Qiantang Airways is not the only Chinese airline having shown an interest in cruise business, but so far it is the only one having made this concrete move. Moreover it aims at the upper end of the more discerning clientele in a market that is ruled by competition on prices. The company aims to organise a small group of about 200 passengers for an expedition in March 2016, according to our source in China.