(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-23 14:55

XIAMEN  -- Superstar Virgo, the first luxury liner to take tourists from China's mainland directly to international waters, has received over 700 bookings for its planned maiden cruise via east China's Xiamen City on May 8.

Until now mainland tourists have had to go to luxury cruise terminals in Hong Kong or Singapore to take ocean-going cruises.

The ship's Malaysia-based operator Star Cruises did not comment on the booking for the maiden trip. But Wu Mingfa, a marketing manager of Star Cruises, said that Xiamen is an ideal port for international luxury liners to tap the huge market potential across China's mainland, Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions as well as Taiwan.

The luxury ship made the first call at Xiamen on the eastern coast of Fujian Province on April 11, bringing over 1,600 overseas tourists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Canada, Singapore and Australia.

Starting from this maiden cruise through October, Superstar Virgo will, in total, make 25 regular calls at Xiamen at 1:00 p.m. on every Thursday and return to Hong Kong at 10:00 p.m. on the same day, said the manager.

Superstar Virgo is one of the largest luxury liners in the Star Cruises fleet, which measures 76,800 gross tonnes with 935 guest rooms able to accommodate 1,870 passengers.

The World Cruise Shipping Industry estimates the number of cruise passengers in Asia will jump 40 percent from 1.07 million in 2005 to 1.5 million in 2010, fuelled in part by Asia's growing affluence and improved flight options to regional port cities.

Xiamen and Shanghai are two of the earliest ports in China's mainland that opened to visits from overseas luxury liners, and have been receiving such cruises for over 20 years.