The two departments issued a document to promote the same cruise travel: in 2025, the number of marketable cruise products will increase by more than 40%

Zhitong Finance learned that the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently jointly issued “Certain Measures to Further Promote the Development of Cruise Transport and Tourism Services” (hereinafter referred to as “Certain Measures”). It clearly proposes 10 specific measures, including expanding cruise departure routes, improving the quality of cruise tourism services, and enriching cruise tourism products.

Yao Yuanxiang, director of cruise business at Tongcheng Travel, said that for a long time, cruise products sold by domestic travel companies were mainly long-haul and short-haul outbound routes departing from domestic home ports, as well as short-haul or global routes departing from overseas destinations. The “Certain Measures” issued this time place “encouraging Five Star Red Flag Cruises to actively develop domestic coastal routes” in a prominent position, which is of great significance in promoting the development of the domestic coastal route cruise market.

“Next, Tongcheng Travel will combine market demand and work with upstream and downstream partners in the industry chain to actively develop domestic coastal cruise routes, enrich onboard services and shore tourism products, and strengthen connections with quality domestic waterway tourist passenger transportation routes.” Yao Yuanxiang explained that since 2025, cruise products on the Tongcheng Travel platform have continued to be rich. As of December 9, the number of cruise products that can be sold on the platform has increased by nearly 40% year on year. The popularity of bookings for routes departing from Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong to popular destinations in Southeast Asia such as Singapore and Bali has increased by more than 120% compared to the same period last year.

Furthermore, in the overseas cruise market, the popularity of bookings for Mediterranean multi-country cruise routes and Middle Eastern Persian Gulf routes has increased by more than 30% year-on-year since 2025. It is worth noting that as “going further, higher quality, and more ways to play” becomes the main characteristic of the mass travel market, the growth rate of non-first-tier city users booking overseas cruise products is obvious.

According to Tongcheng travel data, as of December 9, the popularity of overseas cruise product reservations in non-first-tier cities such as Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Hefei, and Changsha had more than doubled over the same period last year. There has also been a marked increase in overseas cruise product bookings in places such as Shangqiu, Luoyang, Huizhou, and Zhaoqing.