Guangzhou municipal government recently issued Several Measures on Accelerating Guangzhou International Cruise liner Industry, marking the official launch of the city’s first policy on its development. The Measures proposed seven measures such as accelerating international cruiser mother port construction, strengthening support for the international cruise liner industry, forging international cruise liner global purchase ship supply and distribution center and repairing center, promoting supporting service level for the international cruiser industry, providing visa and departure tax-rebate and exemption service, setting up and improving the security, environmental protection and emergency mechanism for cruise liner and improving the organizing and leadership coordination mechanism. From 2016 on, the financial departments at the municipality and Nansha District have allocated a total of 30 million yuan of fund to support the development of the cruise liner industry. The fund is mainly used to support the cruise liner to set up new enterprises, expand business, insurance, and related business of navigation and tug boat, and the mother port operation supporting entities.

In 2016, Guangzhou launched the international cruise liner tourism based on the mother port in Nansha for the first time. During the past year, a total of 104 trips were made, transporting 326,000 in-bound and out-bound passengers. The business scale ranked the 3rd place after Shanghai and Tianjin. The launch of the Measures will play an active role in helping accelerate the construction of Guangzhou International Shipping Hub and International Shipping Center, pushing forward the structural reform of the supply-side, promoting the innovative development of service trade and enhancing the level of cruise liner industry development.

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, Feb. 4, 2017