双语新闻：游轮运营商瞄准亚洲游客
Cruise Operators Target Asian TravelersWith two swimming pools, a rock-climbing wall, a plush theater and cabins for 2,000 guests, the Rhapsody of the Seas is the biggest passenger cruise ship ever to have offered round-trip sailings from Hong Kong. The 11-story behemoth enticed newly prosperous Asians to try the unfamiliar pastime of Western-style luxury cruising while it was based here earlier this year, and its owner, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., is hoping the ship's latest stint, in Shanghai, is a similar success.
Although Asia accounted for less than 5% of the global cruise market last year, the number of Asians taking cruises annually will swell to 1.5 million by 2010, up 40% from 2005, according to a forecast by Ocean Shipping Consultants Ltd. That's faster growth than the 30% rise expected over the period in the more mature North American market, which had about 9.3 million cruise passengers in 2005.
Rising incomes, especially in China, are driving the Asian surge. Already, the number of mainland Chinese taking cruises from Hong Kong alone more than doubled to 459,000 last year from 201,000 in 2005, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Commission. 'Everyone is eyeing this piece of the cake,' says Michael Goh, vice president for sales and marketing at Malaysia-based Star Cruises Ltd., the world's third-biggest cruise company in terms of passengers, revenues and fleet size. And as cruise lines are finding their way in this market, Asian ports from Shanghai to Singapore are building fancy new passenger terminals to serve them.
Cruise operators say their biggest challenge in mainland China is getting out the message to prospective customers that a cruise ship isn't just a means of transportation, like a ferry. They have another issue in the special Chinese territory of Hong Kong, where passengers mostly sailed into international waters just to gamble.
Star Cruises still offers a one-day round trip to nowhere in the South China Sea, but it plays down its casinos now. Instead the company promotes 'family karaoke' and waterslides, as Asians take their children on cruises more often than their counterparts in Europe or North America. At the same time, Star Cruises tries to tempt adults with events such as Mexican-style fiestas featuring 'invigorating tequila,' as described on its Web site.
Star is the dominant player in Asia now, with a total of seven ships in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Passengers on its cruises to destinations such as Thailand and Cambodia are overwhelmingly Asian, though the company won't disclose specific numbers. This month, Hong Kong became the new home for its largest ship, the SuperStar Virgo, with a capacity of 1,870. Star says it moved its flagship here from Singapore to better exploit demand in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Royal Caribbean, the world's No. 2 cruise line in terms of fleet size, passengers and revenue, has tailored the Rhapsody of the Seas for Asia's nascent market by offering acrobatic and magic shows -- 'language-neutral' entertainment for passengers who don't necessarily share languages or understand English. Crucially, it and other cruise companies are offering Asians shorter itineraries, as people here get less vacation time than Europeans or Americans. In another part of the world, the Rhapsody might take passengers on intercontinental journeys lasting weeks. In Asia, typical cruises last just five to seven days.
'If you try to offer something over seven days, you are dead. There is no market,' says Massimo Brancaleoni, vice president for operations in Asia at Costa Crociere SpA, a Genoa, Italy, company that is part of the No. 1 cruise operator Carnival Corp. Costa Crociere, which has 12 ships around the world, since 2006 has based the 1,000-passenger Costa Allegra in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In March, it plans to put another ship in Asia that can carry up to 1,700 passengers.
Teddy Tsang, a 48-year-old publishing plant manager in Hong Kong, took a four-day cruise on the Rhapsody in February with his wife and daughter after seeing 'a lot of newspaper ads' in local Chinese-language papers touting the company's cruises and hearing recommendations from friends. His only previous cruise on a gambling ship had left him unimpressed. 'I went a few times to the casino, but I didn't want to spend the whole day gambling,' he says. But after the latest cruise, which cost around $385 per person, he enthused about a dinner of herb-crusted cod with saffron-champagne sauce and the staff's swift delivery of extra towels to his cabin.
Before bringing the Rhapsody to Asia, Royal Caribbean in July transferred the headquarters of its Asian business to Singapore from Miami. Previously, the company had offered only intermittent cruises in Asia -- stopping them altogether in 2002 -- and targeted non-Asians with journeys lasting around two weeks. When the Rhapsody was based in Hong Kong in February and March, at least 65% of its passengers were Asian. The ship sailed to destinations including Vietnam, China, Taiwan and Japan, and it filled four out of every five cabins on average, the company says.
'Very few Asians have experience in cruising, but our experience here so far demonstrates that that's only because there has been little opportunity in the past,' says Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean's chairman and chief executive officer. The Asian business generated an insignificant share of the company's total sales of $6.15 billion last year, but the market is 'enormous,' he says. 'I'm convinced the demand is there.'
But Rhapsody's very size presents a problem. The ship is too tall to squeeze beneath all of Shanghai's bridges and dock in the city's downtown area; it's also too large to berth at the cruise terminal in Singapore. Therefore, Royal Caribbean plans this year to transfer Rhapsody to Australia and New Zealand, both booming cruise markets, and replace it in December with a slightly smaller sister ship, Legend of the Seas.
Legend has room for 1,800 passengers, 200 fewer than Rhapsody, but the ships have similar amenities. Indeed, the smaller ship has one feature that its sister lacks: an 18-hole miniature golf course. Legend will offer cruises lasting between four and seven days and will operate from Singapore and Shanghai.
Royal Caribbean's new Azamara Cruises unit plans to begin operating its first ship from Asian ports in January. Azamara targets a wealthier clientele than Royal Caribbean International, the brand for Legend and Rhapsody
Cruise lines are still learning how best to satisfy their Asian customers. Kelvin Tan, Royal Caribbean's director of business development in the Asia-Pacific region, says his company's cruises aim to be 'very family friendly,' with activities such as a 'pirates night' dress-up event for kids. For adults, offerings include cooking classes, spa services, ping-pong competitions and singles mixers.
Nevertheless, Mr. Tsang, who sailed to Taiwan on his Rhapsody cruise, complains that he and his family sometimes found themselves 'hanging around' with not enough to do. 'For the Asian people, we need more aggressive staff who will set up a program for passengers,' he says. By August, Shanghai expects to open a new cruise-ship terminal near the city's historic downtown district designed to handle up to one million passengers a year. It will be one of Asia's most unusual terminals, a three-story, glassed-in bubble that looks 'like a UFO,' says Helen Huang, deputy general manager of corporate affairs at Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., the main developer of the $100 million project.
Singapore plans to build a bigger cruise terminal by 2010, and Hong Kong expects to open a new one by 2012.
Hong Kong's needs are particularly acute. When the 150,000-ton Queen Mary II docked here last spring, the city took a public-relations hit as bewildered passengers, rather than docking in Victoria Harbor, had to disembark at a gritty container port -- the only facility that could accommodate the massive Cunard Lines ship.
配备了两个游泳池、一面攀岩墙、一座豪华剧院以及2,000间客舱的“海洋迎风号”(Rhapsody of the Seas)是以香港为始发港提供往返航程的最大一艘游轮。这艘高达11层的庞然大物今年早些时候进驻香港，吸引了亚洲新贵们纷纷尝试这种乘豪华游轮出游的西方新奇消遣方式，其所有者皇家加勒比游轮公司(Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.)希望这艘巨轮在最新的始发港上海也能获得同样的成功。
据Ocean Shipping Consultants Ltd.的预测，虽然去年亚洲占全球游轮市场的份额不足5%，但预计到2010年，亚洲每年乘坐游轮的人数将增至150万人，较2005年增长40%；而在更为成熟的北美市场，预计同期增幅为30%，2005年北美市场中乘坐游轮旅游的人数为930万左右。
亚洲各国（尤其是中国）的收入增长带动了当地游轮市场的迅猛发展。据香港旅游事务署(Hong Kong Tourism Commission)的数据，去年，仅从香港一地乘坐游轮的中国大陆游客数量就超过了45.9万人，较2005年的20.1万人增长了一倍有余。马来西亚丽星邮轮有限公司(Star Cruises Ltd.)销售及市场推广副总裁吴明发(Michael Goh)表示，人人都盯著这块蛋糕。按乘客人数、收入和船队规模，丽星邮轮是全球第三大游轮公司。随著游轮公司打入亚洲市场，从上海到新加坡等亚洲港口纷纷新建高档客运码头以供它们停靠。
游轮运营商们表示，他们在中国大陆的最大挑战就是说服潜在客户：游轮并非像渡轮一样仅仅是种交通工具。在中国的特别行政区香港还有一个问题，这里的乘客出航至公海主要是为了去赌博。
丽星邮轮仍然提供去南中国海的当天往返行程，但现在它减少了赌场活动。相反，公司大力推广“家庭卡拉OK”和滑水项目，因为亚洲乘客比欧美乘客更喜欢带孩子乘坐游轮。同时，丽星邮轮还试图通过举办各种活动来吸引成年乘客，就像它在网站上宣传的那样，游客可以“喝著让你活力四射的龙舌兰酒”，在墨西哥派对上尽情狂欢。
丽星目前是亚洲最大的游轮运营商，在新加坡、香港和台湾共拥有7艘游轮。乘坐丽星游轮去往泰国和柬埔寨等目的地的乘客绝大多数都是亚洲人，不过该公司拒绝透露具体数字。本月，香港成了丽星“处女星号”(SuperStar Virgo)新的始发港，处女星号是丽星最大的游轮，可容纳1,870人。丽星称，将公司最具标致性的游轮从新加坡转移到香港是为了更好地满足中国大陆、台湾和香港的市场需求。
船队规模、乘客人数和收入居全球第二的游轮公司皇家加勒比为亚洲的新兴市场量身打造了海洋迎风号，途中提供杂技和魔术等专门为语言不通或不懂英语的乘客准备的娱乐节目。最重要的是，由于亚洲人的度假时间比欧美人士短，皇家加勒比及其他游轮公司为亚洲乘客提供了较短的路线。在欧美，海洋迎风号会载著乘客进行长达数周的洲际旅行。而在亚洲，行程一般为5至7天。
总部设在意大利热那亚的歌诗达邮轮(Costa Crociere SpA)运营副总裁马司模(Massimo Brancaleoni)表示：“如果你想提供7天以上的行程，那肯定行不通，根本就没有市场。”歌诗达邮轮是全球排名第一的游轮运营商Carnival Corp.旗下公司，在全球拥有12艘游轮，自2006年起，可容纳1,000名乘客的歌诗达游轮“爱兰歌娜号”(Costa Allegra)就以香港和上海作为始发港。今年3月，该公司计划将另一艘可载运1,700名乘客的游轮派驻亚洲。
今年2月，香港一间出版社的经理、48岁的Teddy Tsang携妻女登上海洋迎风号进行了4天的旅行，此前他在当地中文报纸上看到了大量宣传该公司游轮的广告，也听了不少朋友向他推荐。在此之前，他唯一一次乘坐游轮的经历是乘坐一艘赌博船，不过没有给他留下什么印象。他说：“我去了几次赌场，但并不想整天都花在赌博上。”但这次出游之后，他对香草煎鳕鱼配番红花香槟酱汁的美味以及服务员殷勤地往客舱递送毛巾的照顾赞不绝口。Tsang家这次旅行每人的花费是385美元。
在将海洋迎风号派驻亚洲之前，皇家加勒比在去年7月时已将亚洲业务的总部从迈阿密搬到了新加坡。此前公司仅在亚洲市场断断续续地开展业务（2002年时亚洲业务还全部终止了），并把目标客户锁定在那些拥有两周左右假期的非亚洲人士。而当海洋迎风号二、三月进驻香港时，至少65%的乘客都是亚洲人。公司表示，该游轮的目的地包括越南、中国大陆、台湾和日本，客舱的平均使用率为80%。
皇家加勒比董事长兼首席执行长费恩(Richard Fain)表示，只有极少的亚洲人坐过游轮旅游，但目前为止公司获得的经验表明他们不坐仅仅是因为过去没有机会乘坐。虽然在皇家加勒比去年实现的61.5亿美元的销售收入中，亚洲业务仅贡献了很小的一部分，但费恩表示亚洲市场是巨大的，他对本地的需求水平很有信心。
但海洋迎风号过于庞大的身形也是个麻烦。这艘游轮太高，不能保证通过上海市内的每一座桥梁，在市内泊位的停靠也有问题。它在新加坡游轮码头的停泊时也有类似问题。因此皇家加勒比计划今年将这艘游轮改派到澳大利亚和新西兰这两处风头正劲的市场，而在12月时让小一些的“海洋神话号”(Legend of the Seas)进驻香港。
海洋神话号能容纳1,800名乘客，比海洋迎风号少200人，但其舒适程度却不相上下。事实上，海洋神话号还有一样她的姊妹游轮所没有的引人之处：一座18洞的迷你高尔夫球场。海洋神话号行程介于4至7天之间，将以新加坡和上海为始发港。
皇家加勒比旗下新成立的Azamara Cruises公司计划1月份时开始运营它在亚洲港口间的首条游轮线路。和经营海洋神话号和海洋迎风号的皇家加勒比国际游轮公司(Royal Caribbean International)比起来，Azamara致力于服务更高端客户。
各家游轮公司仍在学习如何能更好地满足亚洲顾客的需求。皇家加勒比亚太区业务发展主管Kelvin Tan表示，他的公司希望营造出合家欢的氛围，例如为孩子们举办类似“海盗之夜”这样的化妆晚会；而成年人则可以上烹饪课、享受SPA，参加乒乓球比赛或单身人士联谊活动等。
不过，不久前乘坐海洋迎风号前往台湾的Tsang抱怨他和家人有时候无事可做，只能闲逛。他表示，游轮运营方面应该更加积极地为亚洲乘客安排活动。今年8月前，上海港国际客运中心将投入使用，中心的设计客运量为每年100万人次。该项目开发商上海国际港务（集团）股份有限公司(Shanghai International Port (Group) Co. Ltd.)的公司事务副总经理Helen Huang表示，那将是亚洲最新奇的码头，是个三层楼高的玻璃幕墙建筑，就像个不明飞行物(UFO)。该项目造价1亿美元。
新加坡计划在2010年前建造一个更大的客运码头，香港也计划在2012年前新开一个可以停泊游轮的码头。
香港方面新建码头的需求显得尤为急迫。去年春天，当冠达邮轮(Cunard Lines)旗下的大型游轮“玛丽皇后二号”(Queen Mary II)到访香港时，维多利亚港实在无法容纳这艘15万吨的巨轮，最后“皇后”只好屈尊停泊在了集装箱码头，港府的公关形像也因此受到了打击。
页:
[1]
