World’s largest cruise company said that China is all set to become the largest global cruise market. Arnold Donald, the Carnival Corp & Plc Chief Executive Officer said that China might soon become dominant in the market despite the fact that it is at present smaller than the established markets like North America and Europe.
Donald said that the Chinese market is currently small but will soon grow. The CEO added that the Carnival Cruise’s capacity in China is expected to grow by 140 percent from 2013 to 2015. Donald added, “We received half a million guests on our ships last year. We expect to have millions in the future.”
The prediction of Donalds has been made on the basis of the statistics from the China Cruise and Yacht Industry Association. The cruise market in 2012 had witnessed a rapid increase with a volume of 262 International ships which was up by 17.5 percent. It has also been noticed that the cruise companies since 2013 have increased their investments in China due to which the number of cruise ships have doubled.
Even the routes and the frequencies of sailings has also increased. Carnival will soon announce its first around the world cruise which will leave from Shanghai in 2015 and will visit 28 destinations in 86 days.
Photo Credits: Maritimematters
