New Vietnam-Bound Chinese Luxury Cruise Service to Launch this Summer

August 2017 will see the launch of a new luxury passenger cruise service, bringing as many as 960 passenger per voyage from Southern China’s Guangxi region to a number of coastal resorts in central Vietnam, including Da Nang and Nha Trang.

Luxury cruise travel is a particularly lucrative element of the Chinese outbound tourism market with an anticipated 4.5 million annual passengers expected by the year 2020, a significant jump from the close to one million Chinese passengers recorded in 2015.

With Vietnam having seen strong growth in Chinese visitor numbers since late 2015 – including a total of almost 1.9 million arrivals in the first half of 2017, a year-on-year increase of 56.7% – a large share of these tourists are crossing the border in the north for short-term, low-yield trips. Accordingly, it is hoped that Vietnam’s emergence as a destination for international Chinese cruise tourism – a market currently dominated by South Korea and Japan – will see greater numbers of high-spending Chinese tourists coming to the country.

Although China is still a relative newcomer to the international cruise tourism market, a number of key demographic trends have emerged. For example, Chinese cruise passengers tend to be younger than those from the United States, with 40% being under the age of 40. Moreover, the Chinese are more likely to travel in multi-generational family groups and spend far higher amounts on on-board shopping.

Following the inauguration of the new service this summer, the Guangxi region’s tourism development commission announced that it would look to expand cruise services to other regional countries, highlighting Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia as possible destinations.

COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute provides expert insights into the worldwide developments of China’s outbound tourism market. As Chinese outbound tourists are travelling to a large range of destinations, our publications cover a number of regions, providing detailed insights and analysing visitor behaviour.

With COTRI’s insights you can forge a successful business strategy built upon in-depth market expertise, comprehensive qualitative analysis and future projections. The Spring 2017 Edition of the COTRI Market report features in-depth exploration of the developing trends in the field, supported by a wealth of qualitative and quantitative statistical research.

Source: Xinhau, VN Express, Tourism Review, Global Times

Image: Flickr