Nansha homeport celebrates maiden cruise

The cruise ship NeoRomantica from the Costa, a major cruise liner operator in Europe and Asia, carrying nearly 1,200 passengers, departed Guangzhou’s Nansha homeport on Nov 17, marking the debut of the newly-established port.

The long-awaited maiden trip, to last for five days and four nights, is bound for the Yaeyama Islands, Japan, and lured plenty of tourists from across China.

The ship “Costa NeoRomantica” is waiting for the departure at the Nansha Cruise Ship Homeport. [Photo/gznsnews.com.cn]

“My family spent 4 hours on a railway to come here and experience the cruise trip,” said a tourist surnamed Zhang from Hunan province.

Passengers are able to enjoy green travel and convenient services in the country’s first homeport featuring seamless connection with a subway.

In addition, the clearance channels’ facial recognition technology and cruise control systems notably reduce the customs clearance costs and make the process more efficient.

As the country’s largest cruise ship homeport, Nansha is capable of docking the world’s largest cruise ships and receiving 750,000 tourists per year.

The port, with an elegant 60,000-square meter terminal as well as convenient supporting transportation and business facilities, is becoming a new landmark of Guangzhou.

A celebration activity was held in Guangzhou’s Nansha district. Leaders witnessing the first sailing included the former Minister of Communications Li Shenglin and the district’s Party Secretary Cai Chaolin.

Cai indicated that the Nansha Port Area has opened nine international routes and twelve cruise ship destinations since 2016. It has ranked among the top three on the scale of inbound and outbound visits for the last consecutive three years.

In the future, the district will continue to ramp up the investment attraction of cruise enterprises, promote local tourism through a “cruise ship plus” new development mode, and enhance cooperation with city clusters in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.