Seatrade Cruise Asia Pacific 2017 kicks offSeatrade Cruise Asia Pacific 2017 kicks off

Over 1,000 participants are envisaged to attend the event, including an audience of more than 700 expected to witness the opening ceremony at the Delta Marriott hotel Thursday morning.

Before that, on Wednesday, two familiarization trips took place, one to the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding shipyard and Haurun Dadong shiprepair yard and another to Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal, both of which were fully subscribed.

Also taking place on Wednesday afternoon was a virtual coin-laying ceremony and reveal of the name of Costa Asia’s first 135,500gt newbuild for China.

Andrew Williams, general manager Seatrade, thanked the event hosts and co-organisers Shanghai Baoshan District People’s Government, Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal and Shanghai International Cruise Business Institute for their 'support, professionalism, passion and drive in not only making the event possible, but in driving the cruise industry development in China, as all of our sponsors and supporters of this event.’

Williams added: ‘I am pleased to announce the unprecedented demand for this event means we have over 1,000 registered attendees ... the highest for any cruise event in China ever.’