Costa Cruises has inaugurated the new international cruise terminal in Tianjin with the first port call of the Costa Romantica.
Since its debut in China in 2006, Italy’s Costa Cruises has invested around 50 million euros in the region and quintupled its cruise capacity, with a total of 93 Chinese port calls in 2010.
Costa Romantica is joining her sister ship Costa Classica, effectively doubling the number of Costa liners deployed in Asia.
Costa Romantica will be calling at Tianjin 10 times this year.
In 2008, Costa inaugurated Shanghai’s cruise terminal on the occasion of the 100th cruise of Costa Allegra.
Costa’s Far Eastern cruises sail from the ports of Shanghai, Tianjin, Hong Kong and Singapore and include stopovers in Sanya (China), Halong Bay (Vietnam), Da Nang (Vietnam), Okinawa (Japan), Kagoshima (Japan), Nagasaki (Japan), Fukuoka (Japan) and Cheju (South Korea).
Costa Crociere president Gianni Onorato said the ultimate aim was 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”.
