Joy is a dream cruise ship that set sail last summer, with a horrible displacement of 16, tons. This cruise ship that is better than an aircraft carrier is all in the style of Chinese style, just to cater to the needs and experiences of China tourists. But only one year later, this cruise ship has announced that it will launch the China market. What is the ultimate reason?

The reason is:

The cruise market in China has become saturated, and there is a phenomenon of oversupply. Cruise routes from all over the world appear in clusters, and China tourists are used to using cruise ships as a means of transportation, and few people spend money on cruise ships and experience the internal services of cruise ships.

After one year's operation, it is announced that it will leave the market. The cruise ship Joy, which is said to be tailor-made for China tourists, will leave the China market in April next year.

Today, a group of travel agents received a notice from Novozymes Cruise Company that its Novozymes Joy will leave the China market in April 219 to sail Alaska. Compared with the high-profile arrival of Joy in Shanghai's home port in the name of "first class at sea" at the end of June last year, today's notice is quite surprising.

The cruise ship tailored for the China market is about to leave

It is understood that after leaving the China market, Joy will enter Alaska in the summer of 219 and sail to the west coast of the United States and Mexico in the winter of 219-22. The tentative itinerary is to leave Shanghai on April 1 and arrive in Seattle on April 26.

regarding the reason for the departure of Joy, Novozymes Cruise said in the notice that this adjustment is required by the company's overall strategic planning. Novozymes Cruise's confidence in the China market has not changed, and its determination to develop in China for a long time is even stronger.

This statement is obviously not enough to answer the questions hovering in people's minds. After all, when entering Shanghai last June, officials said the cruise ship was tailor-made for China tourists.

related notice

judging from the design of the cruise ship, Joy, which entered the China market with a new ship last year, has really made some efforts to create the characteristics of China.

For example, the phoenix and auspicious clouds on the ship were designed by China designer Tan Ping, revealing a strong Chinese style; The names of all facilities, signboards and menus in the cabin are mainly in Chinese, and the English fonts are reduced in the lower row to shorten the distance with China tourists;

On the dinner menu, besides Chinese delicacies such as the Buddha leaping over the wall, scallops, beef and other ingredients have also been cooked in a Chinese way, and you can also eat soybean milk fried dough sticks and mala Tang on board.

The boat activities even arranged for teachers to teach Tai Ji Chuan and square dance. In order to cater to the demand of China tourists who like "buying in buy buy", the duty-free shop area on board is 9 square meters, which is larger than that of ordinary cruise ships.

The font in Chinese in Joy Market is bigger than that in English

However, such a large cruise ship, which has been operating in China market for just one year on June 28th this year, announced today that it will temporarily leave China next year, and there is no plan to return to China market until 22, which makes people curious about the reasons behind this change.

A 7,-ton cruise ship will replace Joy.

A tourist who has taken many Novozymes' cruise ships told Jiefang Daily that she had been to Bermuda on Novozymes' cruise ship and also set off from Shanghai to Nagasaki on Joy. The overall impression is that these cruise ships have exquisite rooms and good service, and the suites with excellent privacy are the hearts of some high-end tourists.

However, this tourist also admitted that she asked about the operation of some shops on Joy when she was on the boat, and felt that she could not make any money.

when you take a cruise abroad, you need to queue up to book the SPA on board, but judging from the situation at that time, the number of SPA reservations on Joy will not exceed 5% of the number of tourists, so it is obviously difficult to meet the expectations of operators.

In addition, it is difficult for the photography service on board to meet the target, and there is almost no follow-up; Some people buy cosmetics in duty-free shops, but few people care about expensive jewelry and watches. Many tourists prefer to go ashore to buy them in Japan.

Crystal lights and stairs inside the cruise ship Joy

According to this person, many tourists in China still regard the cruise ship as a means of transportation rather than a destination and entertainment place, so they seldom spend money after boarding the ship.

Generally speaking, the fare for the ordinary room of Joy departing from Shanghai is up to 4, yuan, which can't even be sold in the off-season. If tourists who board the ship at such a fare rarely participate in the charging items on board, it is almost inevitable that Joy, with 1,8 crew and service personnel, will struggle in operation, but I didn't expect the notice that Joy will leave China temporarily to come so soon.

according to the relevant notice of Novozymes, after Joy leaves, the company will station a 7,-ton Novozymes Brave in the China market in 22, and the cruise ship will start seasonal operation in China, and its tonnage is not the same as that of Joy, which exceeds 16, tons.

it is intriguing that the cruise ship Zhiyong no longer emphasizes the Chinese style created when Joy entered, but internationalization.

The notice describes the Brave: "No matter the dining environment or the cruise atmosphere, it is mainly characterized by internationalization."

A number of large cruise ships temporarily left the China market

In fact, it was not the Novozymes Joy that chose to leave the China market temporarily. According to public information, at the beginning of last year, Princess Sapphire, which had been operating in China for three years, chose to leave China and was sent to Europe to Singapore.

Later, Princess Cruises announced that Princess Shengshi will leave China temporarily this September and switch to the Australian cruise market. In September last year, Marine Mariner, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean, announced that it had left the China market and sent it to the US market. In February this year, Victoria, a subsidiary of Costa Cruises, also left the China market and switched to the European market.

In March of this year, the New Century Cruise under Tianhai Cruise, the first local luxury cruise company in China, was also sold by Ctrip and Royal Caribbean, and was taken over by Marella Cruise under TUI Group, which was regarded by the industry as a "waterloo" for local enterprises in cruise management exploration.

Wang Leehom, the spokesperson of Joy, and the specially designed Phoenix pattern

Some experts in the industry said that this was the inevitable result of the oversupply of cruise ships in China.

The cruise market in China started late and has a huge space, which makes many international cruise companies see business opportunities. However, the price competition caused by China's unique cruise sales model and excess products is becoming more and more fierce, and the profit margin is greatly reduced, which also affects the quality of cruise tours.

The temporary departure of some large cruise ships from the China market will do more good than harm to the supply-side reform of cruise products, and the whole cruise tourism market will gain new development space.