Carnival unveils Majestic Princess, will launch from Shanghai next July

(Source: Internet)

Carnival Corp & Plc, the largest cruise vacation group in the world, on Wednesday unveiled designs and the key features of a new luxury flagship Majestic Princess for China, operated by the global travel master, -Princess Cruises.

Scheduled to arrive in Shanghai in July 2017, the ship will commence her inaugural China season with voyages to a variety of destinations throughout Asia visiting ports of call in Japan and South Korea, Princess Cruises announced at a press conference on Wednesday.

Details of the itineraries are still under discussion between Princess Cruises and some travel agencies.

Princess Cruises President Jan Swartz said at the conference that the company has carried about 350,000 Chinese customers using two luxury ships since it entered the nation's market in 2014.

Cherry Wang, vice president of Princess Cruises China, said that the Chinese market for luxury cruising has improved a lot in the past three years.

"Chinese customers are increasingly familiar with the concept of cruising," Wang told the Global Times on Wednesday. "They used to care a lot about the itineraries, such as how many ports the ship travels to, but now they are starting to understand that the ship itself is the destination."

Anthony Kaufman, executive vice president of Princess Cruises, noted at the press conference that the services provided on the Majestic -Princess have been designed to cater for the needs of Chinese travelers, such as Chinese cuisine and a Chinese crew.

"We have absolute confidence in the potential of the Chinese market," said Wang.

According to a report published by Beijing-based BigData Research on July 8, about 1.8 million people from China took an international cruise in the first six months of 2016, up 79.76 percent year-on-year.

Wang said that Princess Cruises might develop more home ports in China to form a nationwide business network in the future.

Princess Cruises now operates a fleet of 17 ships globally.