Reading Tips

With the upgrading of cultural and tourism consumption, mass cruise consumption continues to heat up. Cruise travel offers a variety of "on-the-road" experiences, creating diversified emotional consumption scenarios and forming a strong sense of social interaction, atmosphere, and experience, attracting more and more consumers to embark on a "mini-vacation at sea".

Recently, the family-friendly stage play "Aida Classic of Mountains and Seas: A Fantastic Journey" premiered successfully on the Aida Magic City cruise ship, with the thousand-seat theater packed to capacity.

According to data from the Ministry of Transport, from January to November 2025, my country's cruise passenger traffic reached 1.265 million, an increase of 27.8% year-on-year, playing a positive role in promoting tourism development and expanding consumption.

Guo Jia, Assistant Vice President of Product and Customer Experience at AIDA Cruises, noted that nowadays, tourists no longer focus solely on inquiring about shore excursions, but instead repeatedly confirm onboard activities, restaurants, and performances, placing greater emphasis on the social atmosphere and overall experience on board. More and more young people and urban professionals are turning their attention to cruise ships, preferring to enjoy their time on board without the hassle of complicated itineraries or shore excursions.

High cost-performance ratio, low barrier to entry

This winter vacation, Mr. Zhao and his family drove from Zhuhai to Hong Kong for their second overseas cruise trip. This time, they chose a 6-day, 5-night cruise from Hong Kong to Da Nang (Chen My Port), Vietnam. "After comparing various options, we felt that taking a cruise was more cost-effective," they said.

Mr. Zhao's "high cost-performance ratio" is primarily reflected in the certainty of the "all-inclusive" price. A single ferry ticket covers accommodation and all transportation, eliminating the need to separately book hotels, flights, restaurants, and entrance tickets, allowing all expenses to be locked in before departure.

Mr. Zhao explained the costs to the reporter: a one-way airfare from Hong Kong to Vietnam for independent travelers costs approximately 700 to 1500 yuan, plus 6 days and 5 nights of hotel accommodation and transportation, bringing the average cost to about 5000 yuan per person; while a cruise costs about 4000 yuan per person for two people, and as low as 3000 yuan per person for three or four people. "For families like ours, cruises are much more cost-effective," Mr. Zhao said.

For travelers choosing traditional itineraries, the ability to easily visit multiple countries and cities is another cost-effective advantage. In 2025, Royal Caribbean's Quantum Ultra class "Spectrum of the Seas" will operate 78 voyages annually, covering more than 20 popular Asian destinations, including South Korea and Vietnam. Most itineraries departing from domestic homeports offer visa-free or visa-on-arrival options, meaning travelers can wake up to a new port of call.

Zhou Yongbo, a professor in the Department of Tourism Management at the School of Sociology, Soochow University, believes that the ease of "just packing up and going" without having to do any planning or decision-making is the key to attracting consumers to cruise ships.

Creating diverse emotional consumption scenarios

On a cruise ship, consumers are buying more than just a destination tour; they're also enjoying a peaceful and fulfilling emotional experience. Anime and manga enthusiasts flock to cosplay-themed cruises, partying with like-minded people at sea; senior citizens learn about traditional Chinese medicine on "health and wellness" cruises; and families choose to spend the Lunar New Year on a cruise, with both the elderly and children finding something to enjoy. From live-action role-playing games and fan meet-and-greets to themed cruises, this all-encompassing "maritime complex" offers an outlet for everyone's emotions.

This summer, Ms. Lin, who works at an internet company in Shanghai, shared with a reporter after taking her son on a cruise that the biggest takeaway from the trip was precisely the brief "disconnection" from daily life. "Once on the ship, I found the network signal was intermittent, which actually made me put down my phone completely. It's been so long since I've felt like I didn't have to reply to messages," Ms. Lin said.

A wide variety of experiential activities is another major highlight that attracts cruise ship consumers. Taking the Spectrum of the Seas as an example, various recreational facilities such as deck surfing, rock climbing walls, and bumper cars are available for free, with multiple free shows performed nightly. In addition, the ship offers thoughtful services such as free childcare.

Zhou Yongbo attributes the current changes in cultural and tourism consumption to a "paradigm shift from instrumental rationality to experiential rationality": "In the past, people asked 'How long will it take to get there?' Now people are asking 'What's along the way?'"

Data from the China Tourism Academy shows that in 2025, 68% of domestic tourists listed "emotional experience" as their primary travel purpose, far exceeding the 23% who cited "sightseeing." Zhou Yongbo believes that the cruise experience possesses a "purposeless purposefulness"—the destination is downplayed, while the experience on the cruise ship is amplified. By cutting off information flow, resetting social patterns, and suspending identity labels, cruise ships offer people a psychological system reinstallation.

Destinationless travel opens up new consumer markets

Recently, the Ida Shanghai cruise ship, carrying over 4,000 guests, departed from Shanghai and completed a 3-day, 2-night cruise with no destination, without any stops at overseas ports. This is also my country's first cruise with no destination.

From a consumption trend perspective, short-distance, high-frequency, and high-quality micro-vacations are becoming a new direction for cultural and tourism consumption. The "Several Measures to Further Promote the Development of Cruise Transportation and Tourism Services," jointly issued by the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in November 2025, explicitly proposes: enriching cruise tourism products, promoting the integration of performing arts, exhibitions, cultural and creative products, and health and wellness products into cruise ships, and developing new "cruise+" consumption scenarios. Sea tours to nowhere, with their advantages of visa-free entry, low cost, and focus on experiential elements, precisely align with this trend, opening up a new market for mass-market cruise consumption.

Guo Jia told reporters that the cruise received a positive market response as soon as it was launched, with many cabins selling out shortly after it went on sale. Compared with regular outbound cruises, passengers on cruises without a destination tend to have more active secondary spending on board, including at specialty restaurants, spas, and paid entertainment. The duty-free shop at sea offers a wide variety of global goods, while the market at sea features trendy items and unique cultural and creative souvenirs.

Zhou Yongbo conducted research on the user profile of cruises to nowhere: "Passengers on cruises to nowhere are 8 years younger than those on regular outbound cruises, mainly aged 25 to 40, which happens to be the most active consumer group." For tourists, the ticket is no longer just the right to "go somewhere," but a comprehensive consumption experience encompassing accommodation, dining, entertainment, shopping, and social interaction.

(Source: Workers' Daily reporter Li Lingyu)