Tianjin Cruise Port eyes 10 million passengers in 2020

Tianjin International Cruise Home Port, the largest cruise port in northern in China, has revealed plans to improve facilities and services in a bid to hit 10 million passengers each year by 2020.

In a recent interview with mainstream media from China and other Asia countries, Tianjin Cruise Port general manager Zhang Zhendong said cruise industry has been increasing "very fast" in China.

"We want to improve the whole industry. We need to have more cruise lines first," Zhang told the journalists who visited port, one of the 11 cruise ports in China, last week.

Zhang said the port also plans to improve the facilities "because as you can see the waiting area is a little bit crowded."

"We want also to put up duty free shops, restaurants, children’s playground and comfortable waiting areas," he added.

Due to the increasing number of passengers, he said more cruises will be put up in countries like Japan and Korea as well as in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

Tianjin International Cruise Home Port began operations in June 2010 and has boosted the incremental development of cruise tourism in northern China.

"We are also considering to increase the duration of voyage from present 10 days to at least 46 days to make it global," Zhang said.

In 2016, the number of cruise ships that used Tianjin home port has increased significantly to 142 from only 96 in 2015 and predicted to balloon at 243 this year.

"When we started operation in 2010, we have only 25 cruise ships with 70,000 passengers but it increased to 142 with 710,000 passengers last year," Zhang said.

Among the renowned cruise players using Tianjin port are Royal Caribbean International, Costa Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises and MSC or Mediterranean Shipping Co.

At present, three big cruise ships can dock simultaneously at the Tianjin Cruise Port, but number will increase to six once construction of the 62,000 square-meter facility is completed.

Zhang said Tianjin Cruise Port will make big impact in deepening the tourism industry under the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 to deepen areas of cooperation in trade, culture, tourism and people-to-people exchanges in Asia, Europe and Africa.

The cruise ship port is located at the south of Dongjiang Port Area which is divided into dock operation, logistics processing and port integrated service zones.

The Port Area has also a man-made beach and Tianjin Container Port Terminal which is the largest port in northern China and the main maritime gateway to Beijing.

Dongjiang Port Area is part of the 119.9-square kilometer China (Tianjin) Pilot Free Trade Zone that was officially established in 2015 to serve as a high-level open platform for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Jelly Musico is a reporter of the Philippine News Agency and current Intern of the People’s Daily Online