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  "description": "Disney Adventure arrived in Singapore in March for a year-round deployment that tourism executives said could handle five hundred thousand passengers annually. ",
  "path": "/asia-cruise-market-tops-3-million-passengers-amid-uneven-recovery/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-04T20:19:38.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.cruisenews.io",
  "textContent": "Asia’s cruise market topped three million passengers in 2025 and grew at twice the rate of North America, but the region was still only 71 percent of its 2018 peak while other cruise regions reached record volumes. The uneven recovery has sharpened calls for Asia to be sold more as a connected cruise region, with industry participants pointing to consumer education, port coordination and renewed deployment as priorities.\n\nChina remains the clearest measure of the gap. CLIA data cited by industry participants placed China as the world’s second-largest cruise source market before the pandemic; by 2025, it had fallen to seventh despite nearly 16 percent growth.\n\nDickson Chin, managing director of Wallem Ship Agency, said Asia’s later reopening after COVID-19, especially China’s delayed return to international cruise operations, gave cruise lines time to commit ships to regions that were already producing stronger results. “For too long, we have fragmented into North Asia and Southeast Asia,” Chin wrote after Seatrade Cruise Global 2026. “We need to educate about the market,” he said, pointing to the range of destinations and experiences available across Asia.\n\nWallem’s ship agency network covers 27 offices across 10 countries in Asia, giving the company a broad view of port activity across the region. The agency reported record Asia cruise port-call business during the first three quarters of 2025 before activity slowed late in the year; Chin said Japan accounted for the largest share of growth, followed closely by Singapore and Hong Kong.\n\n## Capacity returns through Singapore and regional deployment\n\nAsia-Pacific cruise capacity is up 47 percent year over year in 2026, the largest percentage increase of any sailing region, with estimated guest capacity near 4.5 million, according to the 2026 Cruise Industry News Annual Report. The region remains smaller than the Caribbean, at 16.5 million, and the Mediterranean, at 6 million.\n\nSingapore is one of the main beneficiaries. The city-state handled more than two million cruise passengers in 2025, up more than 9 percent from about 1.85 million in 2024, and recorded 375 cruise ship calls. Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Adventure arrived in Singapore in March for a year-round deployment; tourism executives have said the roughly 6,700-passenger ship could handle 500,000 passengers annually during a homeporting commitment of at least five years.\n\nThe Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection has also brought Luminara into Asia for the line’s first regional cruises. Separately, the Singapore Tourism Board’s three-year partnership with Princess Cruises will place Diamond Princess, Sapphire Princess and Grand Princess in Singapore seasonally from 2027 through 2030, with more than 150,000 passengers expected and sailings scheduled to double by 2030. The program includes 10- to 28-day itineraries to Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as longer voyages between Singapore and Japan.\n\n## Ports press infrastructure and operating changes\n\n“Governments in Asia are not shy about investment,” Chin said, citing terminal and infrastructure spending intended to attract cruise lines before ships are already in market.\n\nSouth Korea is among the most aggressive examples. Lee Jong-Geun, deputy director of the Marine Leisure Tourism Division at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said the country expects more than 1.8 million cruise guests and 952 calls in 2026, after slightly more than one million guests and 588 calls in 2025. In 2019, South Korea handled 260,000 passengers and 154 calls.\n\n“That number was based on our previous estimates, but we are getting even more cruise call requests, so I think the final figure will be even larger than that,” Lee said. He attributed recent growth to K-pop and K-culture demand, as well as itinerary shifts tied to diplomatic friction between China and Japan.\n\nSouth Korea has added Masan and Saemangeum as cruise destinations, bringing the country’s cruise port count to nine. Lee said the government has also introduced onboard immigration clearance and removed the need for secondary permissions when ships make consecutive Korean port calls. A Busan cruise terminal expansion is due by year-end, and a new three-story cruise terminal is planned there by 2030.\n\nHong Kong reported a 20 percent increase in cruise passenger arrivals and calls in 2025 and is seeking more turnaround and fly-cruise business. Marilyn Tham, general manager of mega events, MICE and cruise at the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said regional itinerary planning is central to the city’s cruise strategy. “Going north, we can always bundle Japan and Korea. Going south, we have Vietnam and the Philippines,” Tham said.\n\nTham also said Asian ports need to work together, noting that cruise penetration in Asia remains below 1 percent, compared with roughly 5 percent in the U.S. market. Hong Kong officials are also discussing the possible reopening of cruise anchorage options, which Wallem said could ease berth constraints and allow tender access to sites including UNESCO World Heritage areas and Hong Kong’s Marine Park.\n\n## China remains the difficult swing market\n\nChina posted 28 percent cruise growth during the first 11 months of 2025, but the market remains price-competitive and lacks a mature cruise marketing structure. China Merchants ended its cruise joint venture after five years, while Viking reclaimed Yi Dun. Smaller brands including Blue Dream suspended operations, and Piano Land is heading to a new Spanish company after the 1995-built ship passed mainland China’s 30-year age limit for cruise ships operating from the country.\n\nThere are still signs of rebuilding. Royal Caribbean International and MSC Cruises have positioned ships year-round in China as the first international companies to reopen Chinese homeports, and Royal Caribbean has told investors it is seeing higher sales volume and per diems on longer Asia cruises.\n\nAdora Cruises says its second domestically built ship, Adora Flora City, will be delivered on Nov. 6, about two months ahead of schedule, before entering service from Guangzhou Nansha International Cruise Home Port on Nov. 22. The ship will be Adora’s third, and the company has signed for two Chinese-designed cruise ships with an option for a third, with the first expected by the end of 2030.\n\nChitra Rajesh Kuman, director for cruise at the Singapore Tourism Board, said the board has formed a cruise task force with Thailand. Singapore will also host the first Asia Cruise Investment Forum later this year.",
  "title": "Asia Cruise Market Tops 3 Million Passengers Amid Uneven Recovery",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-04T22:19:40.080Z"
}