Cruise firms bullish on prospects

Foreign cruise operators are making a beeline for China, the world's second largest market for cruise passengers after the US, with a flurry of office openings and launching of tailor-made vessels for local customers to cash in on the growing demand.

Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's largest leisure travel company, launched a project on Wednesday to build a cruise ship specially for the China market named "Costa Venezia", which means Coast of Venice in Italian.

The vessel will be built by Fincantieri S.p.A., the world's largest cruise ship building company, and is scheduled to make its maiden voyage in 2019 from Trieste, Italy. It will follow the itinerary of great Italian explorer Marco Polo before arriving in Shanghai, its future home port. The cruise ship is also one of the two ships that have been tailor-made for the China market by Costa Cruises in 2019 and 2020.