Port of Kaohsiung’s post-pandemic reboot of its vibrant cruise vacation market continues to gather momentum. Following the reopening of the Kaohsiung-Hong Kong route in April, TIPC has announced exciting new cruise vacation routes to Japan that will be launched from Kaohsiung in September and October, just in time for the early autumn holiday season. Also, Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of the world’s largest cruise operator Carnival Corporation, made its post-pandemic return to Taiwan a splash with the maiden visit on May 28th to Kaohsiung of the Costa Serena (114,500GT; 290m long; 3,780 passengers capacity).
Costa Serena, the “Italian castle of the seas”, is leading Italian-rooted Costa Cruises’ return to the Asian cruise market. Kaohsiung was its first scheduled stop in Pacific Asia after departing without passengers from Laem Chabang Port in Thailand. After a stop at Port of Keelung May 29th, Costa Serena will continue on to South Korea and Japan to begin plying regular homeport routes. During the busy season between July and October, Costa Serena will return again to Taiwan to handle regular homeport cruises first based out of Keelung and then Kaohsiung, marking Taiwan’s first homeport cruise routes of the post-pandemic era. Over the long mid-Autumn and National Day holidays in September and October of this year, Costa Serena will run 3 scheduled cruises to Okinawa from Port of Kaohsiung featuring Italian-inspired style, cuisine, and live performances on board and Japanese culture, shopping and hospitality on shore!
Cruise ship arrivals scheduled at Port of Kaohsiung this year have already set an all-time record, with 157 already on the books as of May 28th. Of these, 130 are homeport cruises and 27 are port-of-call visits. TIPC is continuing to improve Port of Kaohsiung facilities for cruise ships and passengers. Before state-of-the-art automated smart passenger handling systems have been installed and tested (est. summer 2023) at the newly opened Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal Building, cruise passengers at the port are being temporarily serviced through Penglai Cruise Terminal at Wharf No. 9. Once passenger handling responsibilities shift to Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal, work will begin to expand and upgrade Penglai Cruise Terminal with similar smart systems. Looking ahead, TIPC will continue working to expand international cruise operator interest in Taiwan. The convenient, highly efficient services of the Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal are ready-made to help cruise ship operators expand business opportunities and fuel growth in the domestic cruise vacation sector.
