America dominates the cruise industry, controlling nearly 80% of the global market. But China is catching up
Chinese travellers to be different from them. The rise in the number of large tour groups in European cities has stoked fears of “overtourism” among locals. Chinese tourists’ supposed preference for only visiting popular landmarks, their taste for Chinese food and their addiction to luxury shopping are widely mocked. But the tastes of Chinese travellers are, in fact, rapidly converging with international norms—nowhere more so than on cruise ships.
Cruise lines owed their early success to offering Chinese tourists what they wanted: “floating shopping malls with casinos” in the words of David Beckel of Bernstein, a research firm. At sea they could bypass the country’s strict gambling laws and snap up duty-free Western brands. Shops on Royal Carribean and Carnival voyages were regularly stripped bare of everything from Bulgari necklaces to South Korean rice cookers.
As a result, cruise lines that have gone too native, or that rely too much on shopping for profits, have suffered. Norwegian launched its first ship built especially for China in 2017, armed with shops, gambling machines, Asian restaurants and a karaoke bar. Two years later, amid disappointing ticket sales, Norwegian spent $50m ripping out all the Chinese fripperies and moved the ship to Alaskan fjords.
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