Growth in Chinese cruise visitors fuels port
expansion in South Korea.
As South Korea welcomes more visitors arriving on cruise ships, the country’s
ports have been expanding their cruise terminals to[ds_preview] cater to the increase in such vessels. On 16 January 2015, after three years of construction, the country’s largest port, Busan, completed its new international passenger terminal as part of redevelopment. The terminal can simultaneously accommodate one 100,000t cruise ship, five 20,000t cruise ships and eight 500t cruise ships. Busan’s older cruise terminal could only accommodate 80,000t cruise ships and its location in Busan’s Yeongdo district was too far from the city centre to facilitate tourism. The new cruise terminal is located right by Busan Station, making it convenient for passengers transferring to and from Korea’s rail network.
Busan Port Authority told HANSA, »The existing international terminal, with an area of 14,436m², was built in 1978. It was designed to accommodate 300,000 visitors every year. However, the number of visitors has been growing. More than 1.7mill. people visited the terminal in 2013. Given this, the new terminal was urgently needed. We expect the terminal will contribute to attracting more tourists.« When the terminal was inaugurated in August 2015, South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and Busan Port Authority announced a target of welcoming 2.8mill. visitors annually by 2020.
»The opening of the new international passenger terminal means Busan offers the most advanced facilities for cruise passengers, making it the representative port for container and cruise shipping in Northeast Asia,« said Park Kyung-chul, the ministry’s director for shipping. Costa Cruises has already signed on, committing its ship »Costa Victoria«, capable of carrying 2,000 people, to calls at the new terminal.
Yeosu-Gwangyang Port Authority, which runs South Korea’s second biggest port, is also competing to position itself as a prime cruise destination in the country. It is currently developing Yeosu New North Port as an exclusive cruise terminal near the existing Yeosu New Port as part of its plan to position the twin ports as a key cruise destination on South Korea’s southern coast. A 286 bn KRW (243mill. $) budget has been set aside for Yeosu New North Port, which will be completed by 2020.
Also catching up is Incheon port, which will build a new international passenger terminal by 2020, too. The terminal will have ten berths, of which two are for cruise ships and the others are for RoPax ferries plying South Korea-China routes. Incheon Port Authority told HANSA that its current cruise terminal targets to receive 131 ship arrivals in 2016, nearly a threefold increase from 55 arrivals in 2015. Costa Cruises, Princess Cruises and Royal Carib bean International are among the cruise operators that include Incheon in their itineraries. IPA president Yoo Chang-keun said, »Based on ships that have been calling at Incheon and new arrivals, we expect to receive 270,000 cruise passengers in 2016.«
The Korea Tourism Organisation estimates that 1.05mill. tourists visited South Korea via cruise ships in 2015, up 10% year-on-year, and a big jump from 153,000 arrivals in 2011. Growing affluence in China has been the main factor, creating demand for cruise holidays.
It initially expected the number of cruise tourists to be less than 950,000 due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak which saw inbound cruise tours go down by 26% year-on-year between June and August 2015. After the MERS outbreak ended in August 2015, Korea Tourism Organisation held roadshows in Shanghai and trade events for Japanese and Taiwanese cruise operators to revive South Korean tourism.
Park said that 1.5mill. cruise passengers, of which many would be Chinese, are expected to visit South Korea in 2016. »Cruise visitors may have shied away from South Korea because of the MERS outbreak this year but we can attract at least 1.5mill. visitors next year.«
Roland Berger’s managing partner in Korea, Lee Soo Sung, told HANSA that it is really necessary for South Korea to expand its capacity for cruise ships. He said, »The numbers say it all. In 2014, there were 1,050,000 cruise travelers (90% of total cruise travelers were Chinese), which is a 30% increase from 2013. By 2020, the South Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries is forecasting that total cruise travel will triple from 2014, accumulating to 3mill. travelers driven by China’s growth in cruise travelers. China is currently expanding on cruise industry both in investment and ship sizes. However, Korea only has three ports (one each in Jeju, Pusan and Yeosu) that can park 80,000t cruise ships while China is building 220,000t cruise ships. Therefore, in order to accommodate increasing demand, new ports and expansion of current ports are necessary. Ports are under construction in Incheon, Busan, and a few other areas with plans for completion between 2016 and 2020.«
Zeng Xiaolin
