Taiwan and mainland China have agreed to let their respective nations’ cruise companies charter foreign-registered vessels to conduct cruises with a cross-straits component, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said Feb. 27.
Cruise operators that are registered on both sides of the strait can apply to conduct cruises, with a single application made to cover all routes that the firm wishes to operate, for a trial period of one year, the MOTC said.
It was also agreed, at a meeting in Hsinchu Jan. 10-13 between the Taiwan Cross-Strait Shipping Association and mainland China’s Cross-Strait Shipping Exchange Association, that such cruises could encompass visits to ports on both sides of the strait in a single cruise, but with the restriction that no passengers could embark on one side to disembark on the other.
The MOTC said it expected the new measures to have a direct positive effect on the development of the cross-strait cruise industry.
According to reports, Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal Development Co. has applied to charter the cruise ship MS Gemini to sail between Shanghai and Taiwan on nine cruises, of which two have so far been approved by the mainland Chinese authorities. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has also applied for its Voyager of the Seas to make one cruise from Keelung to Shanghai in May.
Cruise operators are expected to make 85 scheduled and 89 nonscheduled cruises stopping in Taiwan in 2013, the MOTC said.(SDH)