Page 12 - Asian Cruise Traveller Duty & Tax Free Retail

Significant growth has also been apparent among other nationalities since 2012, with passengers from Hong Kong increasing at an average annual rate of 74%, Indians by 36%, Japanese by 20% and Taiwanese by 14%.
However, these have all been from a much lower base than the Chinese, with China accounting for just less than half of total Asian cruise traveller traffic in 2014, followed by Singapore (163,000 passengers) and Taiwan (137,000 passengers).
In response to the rapid expansion in Asian cruise passenger traffic, operators have looked to expand their offer within the region. Since 2013, advances have been made across several areas, including:
 Passenger capacity increasing to almost 2.2 million a year; an annual increase of +20%
 The number of operating days rising by +16% per annum to reach 5,824 in 2015
 The number of cruises expanding by +11% per annum to reach some 1,065 voyages in 2015, and
 The number of cruise ships operational in the Asian region reaching 52, an increase of 9 since 2013
However, efforts to meet the demand of the Asian passenger increase have not been isolated to fulfilling capacity, with Asian travellers having notoriously high expectations when compared to travellers from other global regions. Consequently, cruise operators have looked to fulfill demand using high specification, modern vessels, as illustrated by Royal Caribbean moving its Quantum cruise liner (launched in 2014) to Shanghai and launching sister ship Ovation (both pictured below) out of China once complete in 2016, with tailored experiences designed to appeal to the Asian traveller1.
1 CLIA (2015) State of the Asia Cruise Industry & Research Findings
Chinese passengers account for half of Asian cruise travellers
Industry Insider:
Asian Cruise Traveller Duty & Tax Free Retail
Cruise operators are looking to fulfil the high demand of the Asian traveller
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