The Chinese cruise ship Adora Mediterranea seen in this file photo off the coast of Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province on September 14, 2025. Photo: VCG

Adora Cruises, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp, said that its vessels had collectively served 1 million domestic and international passengers as of Sunday. The figure represents a milestone in the development of China's domestic cruise industry, industry experts said.

In another sign of the fast-track development of the domestic cruise sector, the company said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Sunday that China's second domestically built large cruise ship, the Adora Flora City, is 91 percent complete with all components fully connected.

The ship is expected to be delivered before the end of the year, and is set to offer domestic and international guests a "more elegant, more tech-savvy, and more Chinese" maritime cultural exploration journey, the company said.

The company operates three large-scale vessels - the domestically built Adora Magic City, the Adora Mediterranean, and the Gulangyu.

"Cruise tourism is an indispensable part of the global travel business, and China is relatively a late starter in this field. However, as the domestic cruise industry takes off, with a whole-of-supply-chain approach encompassing manufacturing, operation and related port services, the relatively new business form is set to provide immense opportunities for the domestic tourism sector and for boosting domestic consumption," Song Ding, a research fellow at the China Development Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Governments at all levels are expected to roll out further supportive policies to accelerate the development of the sector. The long-term goal is to make the sector the largest market in the world in terms of passenger throughput and the diversity of voyage offerings, Song said.

As marine tourism surges in popularity, China has reported a rapid increase in cruise passenger throughput, data showed.

During the first three quarters of 2025 - the latest available data - the total cruise passenger throughput surged 28 percent year-on-year to reach 2.05 million, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources. 

A total of 344 cruise vessels made port entries or exits, up 17 percent year-on-year.

In 2025, consolidation in cruise ship operations further improved, helping the sector to transform and upgrade, an official of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council said at a press conference on Sunday.

China's cruise ship industry could contribute 500 billion yuan ($71.24 billion) in output to the country's economy by 2035, the People's Daily reported in August 2023.