China’s first homegrown cruise ship to sail from Shanghai

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China’s first domestically built large cruise ship is to embark on its commercial maiden voyage, a moment hailed by authorities keen to chip away at the dominance of European shipbuilders in the cruise sector.

The 135,500-tonne Adora Magic City, commissioned by a joint venture between the China State Shipbuilding Corp and US-based Carnival Corp, will set sail on Monday from Shanghai for South Korea and Japan before returning seven days later.

With more than 20 restaurants and bars, indoor palm trees, a theatre seating nearly 1,000 and a 2,000 sq m shopping centre, the ship has 16 floors and can carry 5,246 passengers, according to its builder CSSC’s Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding. Industry insiders have previously said that more than 80 per cent of tickets have been sold for its inaugural voyage.

The ship has been dubbed a “crown jewel” by state news agency Xinhua. “The ability to build such ships embodies a country’s industrial strength,” Xinhua added.

The moment signified that “the capability and capacity to build mega-cruise ships in China” had become reality, said Alexis Papathanassis, professor of cruise tourism management at Hochschule Bremerhaven in Germany.

Brian King, a tourism and hospitality professor at Texas A&M University, said it signalled “tangible evidence” of technological advancement alongside a “large scale and increasingly sophisticated” consumer travel market in China.

China’s dominance in global shipbuilding — mostly container ships, bulk carriers and tankers — has been buoyed by huge state subsidies, its vast shipyards, lower labour costs and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s determination that the country move up the value chain amid trade tensions with the US. But a handful of European shipbuilders have a competitive edge in niche markets such as cruise ship construction.

Four-fifths of the cruise ships under order between 2024 and 2029 are being built by one of the big European ship makers: Fincantieri, Chantiers de l’Atlantique, Meyer Werft or Meyer Turku, according to data compiled by Cruise Industry News, a trade publication. 

The manufacturing of cruise ships is seen as more complicated because of the complex design, assembly and the need to ensure passenger comfort and safety. “China has many advantages for cruise ship construction . . . [which] typically involves state subsidies and China is well placed to mobilise quickly and at scale,” said King.

China last year also debuted a domestically built passenger jet, the C919, developed by state-owned Comac. But both relied on western suppliers for components: CSSC signed an agreement with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to support the Adora Magic City’s construction.

“It will take at least a decade for the Chinese cruise operators to build up [their] fleet and develop service capability to match established western ones,” said Kun Cao, senior manager at consulting firm Reddal.

Demand for cruises could also indicate a recovery in the Chinese tourism market. With just 40mn outbound trips in the first half of 2023, Chinese tourism has yet to rebound to near the level of 2019’s 155mn trips.

In 2019, some 2mn Chinese tourists took a cruise, compared with 14mn people from the US, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, an industry trade body. The number dropped more than 99 per cent in 2022 in China.

Joel Katz, the CLIA’s Australasia and Asia managing director, anticipated a return to “pre-pandemic strength by 2025”. International cruises are also returning to China, including Royal Caribbean and MSC Cruises, said Cleo Liu, general manager of cruise business for one of China’s largest online travel agencies, Trip.com.

China has already begun construction of a second mega cruise ship. Cathy Hsu, a professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said that “before the number of Chinese-built ships reaches a critical number, western cruises will still dominate in terms of carrying capacity”.

CSSC and Adora Cruises did not respond to a request for comment on the specifics of Adora Magic City’s maiden trip and plans for cruise ship building in China.