At the third All-for -One Tourism Promotion Conference on August 3 in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province, the China National Tourism Administration issued membership certificates for the cruise tourism development pilot area and demonstration unit of general aviation tourism to Qingdao.

The cruise tourism industry in Qingdao has been developing rapidly in the past two years. Statistics show that since the home port of Qingdao International Cruise opened on May 29, 2015, it has received 171 voyages of cruise and accommodated 173,000 passengers, ranking top among all cruise terminals in the Chinese mainland in terms of the number of cruises berthed and cruise passengers received in the first year of operation.

Qingdao tourist authorities have teamed up with seven famous cruise enterprises to operate 15 shipping lines, including Royal Caribbean International Cruises Ltd, Carnival Cruise Lines, MSC Cruise and other world-renowned cruises.

In the first half of this year, the home port of Qingdao International Cruise has received 50 voyages of cruise, a 72.4 percent increase compared to the number of last year and welcomed 53,000 passengers, representing a 151.8 percent year-on-year increase.

This year, Qingdao is expected to accept more than 100 cruise ships.

This May, at the joint initiative of Qingdao Tourism Development Committee and Qingdao Tourism Group, the Union for China General Aviation Tourism was set up in Qingdao by the first batch of demonstration units of general aviation tourism and general aviation enterprises.

The establishment of this union is an ice-breaking move to develop general aviation tourism. And the release of Qingdao Consensus by the union will drive the growth of general aviation tourism in China