Chinese authorities informed that cruise industry plans to get back to business after a 11-month suspension period due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Xinhua news agency, region’s cruise industy will restart operations in December under a trial basis.
Namely, the operations will begin cautiously and slowly. Currently, two cruise ships, the Nanhai Dream and the Changle Gongzhu, are scheduled to start cruises on 9 and 10 December respectively.
In fact, Nanhai Dream plans depart from Sanya, South China’s Hainan Province and sail to the Xisha Islands for a four-day tour.
Following the coronavirus situation, the cruise liners may carry no more than 50% of their passenger capacity in the initial stage of resumption, which can be lifted to no more than 70% after two weeks of operation in case the pandemic prevention and control measures prove to be effective.
As Xu Xiaolei, marketing manager at China’s CYTS Tours Holding Co told the Global Times: “the resumption of Xisha tours is more like a preliminary market test. If there are no problems, other routes are expected to be restored in the near future”.
Concluding, experts noted that under the trial resumption, the cruise industry will gradually recover from the pandemic, while more domestic and international cruise operators are expected to apply to resume sailings.
