Bohai Ferry, one of the main Chinese domestic cruise operators, has yesterday (11 June) started yet another new route, this time between the Chinese port city of Yantai and Japan. Alan Lam reports from Hong Kong.

With its one ship, Zhong Hua Tai Shan (the former Costa Voyager), the line is spreading its limited asset thinly across China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Following the launch of its first international itinerary between Yantai and South Korea early last year, Bohai Ferry announced the launch of its Shanghai-Taiwan cruises in November 2014. Six months later, its ship is also heading for to Japan and this is by no means the end of the story.

This latest move makes the company’s ambitious plan to acquire further vessels more urgent. Bohai Ferry has previously indicated that it had plans to procure these vessels at “appropriate times”, including the option of having one of them built in China. These plans remain intact. “The company is planning to purchase another two to three cruise ships in the next five years and build a cruise ship in a Shandong-based shipyard,” Yu Xinjian, General Manager of Bohai Ferry, told a press conference recently.

Whichever choice it eventually makes, one thing is certain: the ships will be big and they will be new. The Chinese market now expects both of these criteria.