China’s cruise industry makes waves as new deal creates Asia’s largest fleet

After the deal goes through, the venture will operate Asia’s largest cruise fleet, CCTV reported on Saturday, without disclosing its exact scale.

Huaxia International Cruise – a joint venture set up by several state-owned enterprises, with China Tourism Group as the largest shareholder – will “nominally” control the four companies’ cruise operations, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported on Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

In practice, however, each cruise brand under the four enterprises – namely, China Tourism Group, China Cosco Shipping, China Merchants Group and China State Shipbuilding Corporation – will continue to operate independently, according to Caixin.

The four companies currently have a total of five cruise ships that can together carry more than 16,000 passengers, meaning that Huaxia will surpass Japan’s NYK Cruises to become Asia’s largest cruise operator by capacity, Caixin reported.