China to Expand Domestic Cruises by Acquiring ex-Costa Ship from Seajets

China looks to resume expansion of its domestic cruise market after a long hiatus following the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latest reports online, Tianjin Orient International Cruises, which was launched two years ago to restart the market from Tianjin, is now poised to acquire a second, larger cruise ship.

Travel agents in China are reporting that the company is acquiring the former Costa cruise ship Costa Magicia, which was sold in 2023 to Greece’s Seajets. The 102,780 gross ton cruise ship has been idle since the pandemic, first held by Carnival Corporation for sale, and since 2023 owned by Marios Iliopoulos’s Seajets, a Greek inter-island ferry company. Iliopoulos emerged as a speculator in cruise ship tonnage during the pandemic. It was the 24th cruise ship sold by Carnival Corporation as part of its pandemic-related downsizing.

Seajets briefly flirted with entering the cruise business, announcing the launch of a company called Neonyx Cruises and reactivating the ship, which was then named Mykonos Magic, as the Goddess of the Night. The plan was to launch a short party cruise service to the Greek Islands in the summer of 2024. The ship was refitted, but in June 2024, shortly before her entry into service, she was chartered as housing for security personnel during the G7 summit in Italy. Local media reported that the ship "was in terrible sanitary conditions, with dirty and damaged accommodation, unusable toilets, dilapidated showers, flooded cabins." Neonyx later canceled its cruises, saying it would start in 2025.

Databases are showing the vessel has been renamed Vision. According to the media reports, it is being prepared to sail to China, where it will undergo a complete renovation. It is due to enter service in 2026 for Tianjin Orient International Cruises.

The company acquired its first cruise ship, now called Dream, at the beginning of 2023 from Sanya International Cruise Development Co., which had purchased the 77,500 gross ton ship from Carnival Corporation and renamed it Charming for Chinese cruises. Sanya was a joint venture between Cosco Shipping, China National Travel Service (HK) Group, and China Communications Construction Co. that was launched to capitalize on the restart of the Chinese cruise market. The ship, which was built in 1998 by Fincantieri operated by Princess Cruises. It had started sailing from China, marketed to the domestic market, and then successfully restarted cruising from Tianjin in northern China in July 2023.

Seajets also owns the former Oceania of P&O, which is a sister ship to the Dream operated by Tianjin. It also still has the former Majesty of the Seas from Royal Caribbean and the former Veendam from Holland America. The company had said it planned to add additional ships to its Neonyx operation.

Source: maritime-executive.com