Carnival Cruise Lines yesterday announced plans to launch five new routes departing from Kaohsiung in October, providing a much-needed boost for the southern seaport, which has seen falling traffic in recent years.
Anthony Kaufman, executive vice president of international operations for Carnival’s Princess Cruises, made the announcement at an event at the Kaohsiung City Library yesterday afternoon, accompanied by Kaohsiung City Government Assistant Secretary-General Lin Yin-ping (林英斌) and Taiwan International Port Corp (TIPC) chairman Wu Men-feng (吳盟分).
The company said it would deploy the Sapphire Princess cruise ship on the new routes, which include a five-day tour of Okinawa and Miyako Islands in Japan, a six-day tour of Hong Kong and a six-day tour of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times
The state-run TIPC said that the cruise tours offered in Taiwan mainly depart from Keelung Port. However, Carnival and Star Cruise have seen the business potential of southern Taiwan and made Kaohsiung one of their homeports this year, TIPC said, adding that people in the south no longer need to travel to Keelung to join cruises.
“A report published last year by the International Cruise Council Taiwan showed that cruise passengers in Taiwan have exceeded those in Singapore and Japan, making Taiwan the second-largest source of cruise passengers in Asia,” TIPC said.
“This shows that Taiwan has a huge potential for further development in the cruise travel market,” the company added.
TIPC forecasts that the nation’s ports would see about 1.02 million cruise passengers this year, with about 780,000 embarking or disembarking from either Keelung or Kaohsiung.
Keelung Port saw 663,458 cruise passengers last year, up from 448,839 in 2015.
Kaohsiung Port, on the other hand, has seen passenger numbers decline over the years, from 133,743 in 2014 to 128,608 in 2015 and 42,998 last year.
The two ports are upgrading their facilities to meet the challenges brought by the increasing popularity of cruise travel, TIPC said.
Keelung Port can accommodate 220,000-tonne cruise liners after it finishes the docks next year.
Kaohsiung Port will be able to do the same after the construction of a new Kaohsiung Port Terminal is completed in 2019.
To expand the cruise travel market, the port company said it aims to promote a vacation model that encourages tourists from Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and India to fly to Taiwan and embark on cruises from here.
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