Costa Cruises, the largest Italian travel group and one of Europe's most popular cruise lines, has inaugurated the new international cruise terminal in Tianjin with the first port call of the Costa Romantica, offering 53,000 gross tonnes and total guest capacity of about 1,700.
The opening of the new terminal is a major step forward in the growth in China of Costa Cruises, the first international cruise company to enter the Chinese market, marketing its ‘Italian made' product in the People's Republic.
The Costa Romantica, which will call at Tianjin 10 times this year, is joining her sister ship Costa Classica, effectively doubling the number of Costa ships deployed in the Far East.
Since its debut in China in 2006, Costa Cruises has invested about 50 million euros in the region and quintupled its cruise capacity, with a total of 93 Chinese port calls this year. In 2010 more than 120,000 cruise guests are expected to be on a vacation aboard a Costa ship in Asia.
Ports of call
Costa's Far Eastern cruises sail from the ports of Shanghai, Tianjin, Hong Kong and Singapore and include stopovers in some of the region's most popular resorts in China, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea.
"Costa Cruises is proud that the first call of the Costa Romantica, a symbol of ‘Italian-made' excellence and elegance worldwide, also marks the inauguration of the new Tianjin cruise terminal.
"This terminal is a reward for our pioneering investments and work in this part of the world, carried out thanks to the invaluable support of the Chinese authorities, the ultimate aim being to popularise a new form of vacation in China, a type of holiday that was practically unheard of before in the People's Republic: namely, cruise vacations," said, Gianni Onorato, president of Costa Crociere.
Tianjin's Xingang Port terminal south of the Dongjiang port area covers 1.2 million square metres. The area developed in the first stage of the project comprises 700,000 square metres and can accommodate six large cruise ships at a time.
The terminal building itself has a surface area of 59,000 square metres and can handle up to 4,000 passengers, with a total of 500,000 a year.
Costa recently won several awards, including the Italo-Chinese Chamber of Commerce's ‘Golden Panda Award', the ‘China ROI Media Award' Golden Prize from the Asia International Creative Communication Group, the "Golden Magellan Award" from Travel Weekly, the ‘2009 China Travel and Meeting Industry Awards' from Travel Weekly China, ‘Most Popular Cruise Line' award, presented during the World Travel Fair 2009, and the ‘Golden List Award' of the ‘Preferred Cruise Line' competition organised by the National Geographic Traveller.
