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1 Background and Trend of the Cruise Tourism Development Under the Background of Tourism Integration in the Yangtze River Delta

The current development situation of tourism integration and cruise destinations in the Yangtze River Delta will be studied in this section to forecast the development prospects for the integration of cruise tourism in the Yangtze River Delta.

1.1 Current Situation of Tourism Integration in the Yangtze River Delta

The development foundation of tourism in the Yangtze River Delta will be studied in this section and the current situation of regional tourism integration in the Yangtze River Delta will be evaluated.

1.1.1 The Yangtze River Delta, an Important Tourist Source Region and Destination in China

The Yangtze River Delta region, composed of Shanghai City, Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province, is one of the regions with the highest economic development level in China. The per capita GDP of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang was CNY 113,600, CNY 95,300 and CNY 83,500 respectively in 2016, equivalent to USD 17,100, USD 14,300 and USD 12,600, exceeding or close to the threshold for high-income economies of USD 12,736 determined by the World Bank in 2016 (Table 1).

Table 1 Some economic and tourism indicators of the Yangtze River Delta region in 2016
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With the improvement of the economic level, the tourism demand of the residents in the Yangtze River Delta has grown rapidly. Annual Report on China’s Domestic Tourism Development in 2017 from the China Tourism Academy shows (China Tourism Academy 2017), the travel capability of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang as tourist source regions ranked 1st, 4th and 5th in China respectively, which are the important tourist source regions in China. The China Tourism Academy analyzes the number of daily flights between regions in China so as to study the tourist flow links between different regions of China, which can reflect the characteristics of inter-regional tourist flows in China to a certain extent. As shown in Table 2, the inter-regional tourist flow presents a “central-peripheral” feature.

Table 2 Characteristics of tourist flows between major regions in China in 2017
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The four major regions, namely the Circum-Bohai-Sea Region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Chengdu-Chongqing Region, are the most economically developed regions in China. The each two of them combine together to form a quadrilateral on the map of China and they are the central backbone of the national inter-regional tourist flows. The links between the other regions of China and the four major regions constitute the peripheral support of the tourist flows. It can be seen that the Yangtze River Delta is an important tourist destination in China.

1.1.2 The Scale of Tourism Industry in the Yangtze River Delta Tending to Be Equalized

Shanghai is the first gateway city for inbound tourism in China. In the era of just rise of domestic tourism, Shanghai had also become an important domestic tourist destination. In 1990s, the tourism industry in Shanghai was ahead of Jiangsu and Zhejiang in terms of industry scale. The evolution tracks of tourism development in the “two provinces and one city” in the Yangtze River Delta since 1990 are as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 respectively. The column chart shows the number of tourist arrivals and the broken line chart shows the per capita consumption of tourists.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Data Source China Domestic Tourism Development Annual Report 2017

Number of inbound tourists and per capita consumption in the Yangtze River Delta region from 1990 to 2016.

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Fig. 2
figure 2

Data Source China Domestic Tourism Development Annual Report 2017

Number of domestic tourists and per capita consumption in the Yangtze River Delta region from 1990 to 2016.

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In 1990, the number of inbound tourists in Shanghai was 893,000, while it was 725,000 and 456,000 in Jiangsu and Zhejiang respectively. The per capita consumption of inbound tourists in Shanghai was also significantly higher than that in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. With the rapid development of inbound tourism in the past thirty years, the internal gap between Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang has been shrinking. In particular, the number of inbound tourists in Zhejiang Province has surpassed that in Shanghai, and the per capita consumption of inbound tourism in Jiangsu Province has surpassed that in Shanghai.

The development of domestic tourism in the Yangtze River Delta has followed the similar rule. The domestic tourism development of Shanghai has been ahead of Jiangsu and Zhejiang since 1997. However, the number of domestic tourists in Shanghai has gradually been overtaken by that of Jiangsu and Zhejiang since 2002, and the per capita consumption of domestic tourism was also surpassed by Jiangsu and Zhejiang in 2010 and 2013 respectively. In general, the scale of tourism industry in the Yangtze River Delta tends to be equalized.

1.1.3 Shanghai, the Tourist Distribution and Service Center in the Yangtze River Delta

Shanghai is the distribution center of regional tourists in the Yangtze River Delta. Table 3 shows the throughput of civil aviation airports in the provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Delta.

Table 3 Throughput of civil aviation airports in the Yangtze River Delta in 2016
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In the passenger throughput and aircraft take-off and landing flights of civil aviation airports in the Yangtze River Delta in 2016, Shanghai accounted for 54.8 and 47.6% respectively, with the most important distribution function of inbound and domestic tourists.

The China Tourism Academy analyzed the number of daily trains between major cities in the Yangtze River Delta to study the tourist flow links in the Yangtze River Delta region, which can reflect the characteristics of tourist flows in the Yangtze River Delta region to a certain extent. As shown in Table 4, Shanghai has obvious advantages in the region, followed by Nanjing and Hangzhou. The number of trains parked and dispatched in the region is significantly more than other cities in the Yangtze River Delta. Therefore, Shanghai is the primary tourist distribution center in the Yangtze River Delta, Nanjing and Hangzhou are the secondary tourist distribution centers in the Yangtze River Delta, and Suzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing are important tourist destinations in the Yangtze River Delta.

Table 4 Characteristics of internal tourist flows in the Yangtze River Delta Region in 2017
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The survey on leisure behaviors of residents conducted by the China Tourism Academy shows that the tourism behaviors of residents in China are mainly concentrated on the short-distance range. With the increasing travel capability of residents in the Yangtze River Delta, the sharing of tourist sources and tourism resources in the Yangtze River Delta is greatly significant for promoting tourism integration in the Yangtze River Delta.

Shanghai is the tourism service center in the Yangtze River Delta. There were three AAAAA scenic areas and 65 five-star hotels in Shanghai in 2015, which were less than Jiangsu and Zhejiang in terms of quantity, indicating that the high-quality tourism attractions and tourism reception capacity of Shanghai were lower than those of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. However, in terms of the indicators reflecting the quality of tourism attractions, the proportion of inbound tourists to Shanghai for the first time was only 36.8%, and the average stay time of inbound overnight tourists in Shanghai was 3.01 d, indicating that Shanghai has strong attraction, which can attract tourists to stay for a long time and can effectively increase the revisit rate of tourists. In addition, the annual revenue of each room in Shanghai Star-grade Hotel is CNY 332,500, which is much higher than the level of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, indicating that the ability of Shanghai tourism enterprises to create value is much higher than that of Jiangsu and Zhejiang (Table 5).

Table 5 Some tourism statistics indicators in the Yangtze River Delta in 2015
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In summary, Shanghai has a strong tourist distribution function and service center function in the Yangtze River Delta. The tourist attractions and star-rated hotels in Shanghai are less than those in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but tourism attractiveness and the value-creation ability of tourism enterprises are stronger than those in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Therefore, the tourism development of Shanghai and that of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are highly complementary. The advantages of Shanghai are mainly reflected in the tourist distribution function and the tourism service quality. The advantages of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are mainly reflected in the tourism development space and the scale of tourism industry. The complementary advantages of the “two provinces and one city” in the Yangtze River Delta should be fully utilized to achieve regional tourism integration.

1.1.4 Tourism Integration in the Yangtze River Delta with a Good Foundation

Since the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, the four regions of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui have fully utilized the platform role of the Joint Conference on Tourism Cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta, strengthened communication and coordination, improved the cooperation mechanism, and successively signed and implemented Cooperation Framework Agreement of Tourism Integration in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, Agreement on Jointly Promoting the Cooperation of the Recreational Tourism Development in the Yangtze River Delta, Action Plan for Realizing the Tourism Integration First in the Yangtze River Delta Region, Suzhou Consensus on Tourism Development Cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta, Hangzhou Scheme on Regional Tourism Integration Development in the Yangtze River Delta, and other documents, and the process of tourism integration in the Yangtze River Delta is accelerating.

The main types, functional objectives and specific measures for tourism integration in the Yangtze River Delta are listed in Table 6. It can be seen that the main measures for tourism integration in the Yangtze River Delta are concentrated on the construction of the free tourist areas, the common tourism market, tourism destinations and tourism cooperation alliances in the Yangtze River Delta. The obstacles to the tourist flow in the Yangtze River Delta have been broken, and barrier-free free tourist areas have been built. Regional tourism products are connected together through tourism routes, and the intelligent tourism public service system in the Yangtze River Delta is built to initially form a common tourism market. The tourism brand image of “travel in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, and enjoy quality tourism” is formed in the region and promoted at home and abroad to initially form the tourist destinations in the Yangtze River Delta. A “Joint Conference on Tourism Cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta” is held every year in the region, and a unified tourism development coordination mechanism has been formed to initially establish the tourism cooperation alliance. However, it should also be noted that the permanent joint tourism management organization and an authoritative system have not yet been established in the Yangtze River Delta, and the degree of regional tourism integration is still far away from the “integrated tourist area”.

Table 6 Main types and measures for tourism integration in the Yangtze River Delta
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1.2 Integration Development Status of Cruise Tourism Destination in the Yangtze River Delta

The development status of cruise tourism in the Yangtze River Delta will be analyzed in this section and the status of the integration of cruise tourism destinations in the Yangtze River Delta will be evaluated.

1.2.1 Shanghai Cruise Port with the Strongest Competitiveness in the Yangtze River Delta

Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal received 471 cruise ships and received 2.847 million inbound and outbound tourists in 2016, accounting for 47 and 63% of China respectively. Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal received 308 cruise ships and received 1.87 million inbound and outbound tourists from January to August 2017. The throughput of Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal has been ranked 1st in Asia and 4th in the world, becoming a world-class cruise home port. It is estimated that the quantity of home-port cruise ships in Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal will reach 20–30, the number of originating cruise ships will reach 800–1000, the number of originating cruise tourists will reach 5–6 million, and the number of cruise ships berthed and cruise tourists received are among the top three in the world in the 13th Five-year Plan period.

Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal launched a follow-up project with a total investment about CNY 800 million in June 2015, and it will build two new large cruise ship berths, two passenger terminal buildings and one approach bridge to further enhance the reception capacity of Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal and respond to the rapidly growing demand for cruise tourism market. The total length of the wharf will extend from 774 to 1600 m after completion, with four large cruise ship berths. Such an operational capacity that “four ships berth at the same time” and 800–1000 international cruise ships are received annually will be formed in 2018. At the same time, Baoshan District will adjust the Chongming Terminal on Baoyang Road to become the land passenger transportation center of the cruise ship port, and build a comprehensive transportation hub of Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal based on the comprehensive transportation hub of Baoyang Road.

Therefore, Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal is the first cruise home port of the cruise destinations in the Yangtze River Delta. Shanghai Cruise Port has the strongest competitiveness among the cruise tourism destinations in the Yangtze River Delta.

1.2.2 No Complete Cruise Port System Formed in the Yangtze River Delta

A “two main terminals and one standby port” city cruise port system has been formed in Shanghai. Cruise ships below 70,000 t are berthed at the International Cruise Terminal, cruise ships above 70,000 t are berthed at Wusongkou Cruise Terminal, and Waigaoqiao Haitong Terminal is used as a standby terminal. The three cruise ports of Shanghai received a total of 2.905 million passengers in 2016, of which Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal received 2.847 million passengers (accounting for 98.0%), and Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal received 57,500 passengers (accounting for 2.0%).

Currently, two cities in the Yangtze River Delta have three dedicated cruise ports (Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal, Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal and Zhoushan Archipelago International Cruise Port). Zhoushan Archipelago International Cruise Port received a total of 38,000 cruise tourists from October 2014 to March 2017. The three cruise ports mainly serve as the departing ports of the cruise ships, mainly including the cruise ships taken by Chinese for outbound tourism, with a few visiting cruise ships calling at the port. There are not many foreigners who travel by cruise ships for inbound tourism. Among the few foreign inbound tourists, they mainly visit Shanghai due to the influence of the urban attractiveness and the 15 d visa-free entry policy of Shanghai.

According to Plan of Jiangsu Province for Distribution of Coastal Cruise Ports (2015–2030) and the 13th Five-year Plan of Zhejiang for Ocean Port Development, the dedicated cruise port under construction in Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province in the Yangtze River Delta is Wenzhou International Cruise Port (the maiden voyage is expected at the end of 2017). The ports with passenger terminals and cruise ship berthing conditions after being properly modified include Ningbo Port, Taizhou Port, Jiaxing Port, Lianyungang Port, Nanjing Port, Zhenjiang Port, Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port, Nantong Port and Suzhou Port.

The passenger flow of cruise tourism in the Yangtze River Delta is mainly concentrated in the Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal. The passenger flow to other cruise ports is smaller and their development is lagging behind, and a cruise port system hasn’t been formed in the Yangtze River Delta. In terms of the development status, the Yangtze River Delta mainly serves as a departing point of the cruise ships, and it receives less cruise ships. It is difficult to form a cruise tourism route in the Yangtze River Delta in series due to the small total number of cruise ports in the Yangtze River Delta and the incomplete functions, which restricts the development of inbound tourism in the Yangtze River Delta.

1.2.3 The Remarkable Progress in the Integration of Cruise Ports and Tourism City in Shanghai

Baoshan District, Shanghai has determined the transformation development goal from “cruise terminal” to “cruise port” and “cruise city”, realizing the macro strategic transformation from “steel city” to “cruise city” to promote the integration of cruise tourism destinations.

From the spatial interaction of the port city, Baoshan District adheres to the development concept of “waterfront linkage and port city integration”, and plans to build a cruise riverside belt and a new cruise city with high standards by relying on the development of the cruise port, and focusing on the north–south extension of Binjiang Avenue, the follow-up project of the cruise port, the core area of the cruise city, Shanghai Long Beach and other key projects.

From the joint development of the cruise industry, Baoshan District promotes the cruise industry to accelerate the extension to the upstream and downstream, and creates a comprehensive cruise industry economy by establishing Shanghai CSSC International Cruise Industrial Park, the constructing Comprehensive Reform Demonstration Zone of Shanghai International Cruise Port, introducing the headquarters of international cruise lines, building Shanghai cruise material distribution center, and establishing China’s cruise tourism cross-border commodity trading center and e-commerce platform.

From the urban tourism development, Baoshan District is oriented towards the theme of “Charming Baoshan · Cruise City” to vigorously develop the tourism industry. In terms of the tourism development in all fields, Baoshan Tourism has formed a full-field tourism pattern including cruise tourism, agricultural tourism, industrial tourism, cultural tourism and ecological tourism by deeply integrating eight fields: cruise, agriculture, industry, commerce, culture, greening, science and technology and education. The district received 11.3363 million tourists, with an increase of 8.3% over the previous year; the tourism income reached CNY 11.012 billion, with an increase of 78.3%.

1.2.4 The Integration of the Cruise Ports and Tourism Hinterlands Needing to Be Developed in the Yangtze River Delta

The current cruise routes in the Yangtze River Delta are mainly originating ones, and they mainly meet the demand of Chinese people for outbound tourism by cruise ships. The foreigners to the Yangtze River Delta rarely take cruise ships, so there are fewer routes satisfying the demand of foreigners for inbound tourism and calling the Yangtze River Delta, and there is no offshore cruise route connecting the cruise ports in the Yangtze River Delta.

Therefore, the hinterland tourism development in the Yangtze River Delta at this stage mainly relies on the onshore tourism of the outbound Chinese tourists in the Yangtze River before and after taking outbound cruise ships, mainly the domestic tourism of Chinese tourists in the Yangtze River Delta. The small number of routes of call is mainly to Shanghai with relatively short docking time, mainly the urban tourism of the foreigners in Shanghai. According to the originating routes, there is no cross-provincial deep tourism of Chinese tourists in the whole Yangtze River before and after taking cruise ships, the inbound tourism of the foreigners in the Yangtze River Delta region before and after taking cruise ships originating from the Yangtze River Delta or corresponding hinterland tourism driven by the routes originating from cities except Shanghai. According to the routes of call, there is no tourism in the cruise port cities driven by the visiting port call of the cruise ships. The whole Yangtze River Delta region hasn’t become a mature cruise tourism destination.

The single cruise routes and destinations in the Yangtze River Delta have restricted the innovation space and elastic operating space of the cruise enterprise products. Since tourists’ most important determinant of the cruise products is the destination, with the ceaseless increase in the market penetration rate of China’s cruise tourism, it goes against the increase in the revisit rate and it possibly restricts the sustainable development on the cruise tourism in the Yangtze River Delta cruise tourism.

In addition, with the cruise headquarters, cruise supply, cruise service, cruise shipbuilding and other relevant industrial clusters in the Yangtze River Delta concentrated in Shanghai and the less radiation and promotion effect on Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the economic division system of the cruise industry in the whole Yangtze River Delta hasn’t been formed.

1.3 Development Trend of the Cruise Tourism Integration in the Yangtze River Delta

According to the deep research on the status quo and development trend of cruise tourism by European Commission (2009) and UNWTO (2010), and in combination with the study and judge on the development trend of the cruise tourism destinations by the author, it can be concluded that the regional tourism integration is the trend of cruise tourism development, which can be divided into three stages according to its development degree.

Primary stage—In the primary stage of cruise tourism development, the cruise ports and cruise routes boasting superior resources begin to rise. But the integration degree of cruise port, tourism city and tourism hinterland is low, and cruise tourism destination hasn’t been formed.

Intermediate stage—With the further development of cruise tourism, the number of cruise ports and cruise routes gradually increase with the construction of cruise terminals at the qualified ports. But the relative homogenization of the functions and natures of ports and routes leads to such a situation that competition between them is greater than cooperation. The cruise ports, tourism cities and tourism hinterlands tend to be gradually integrated to form cruise tourism destinations. But the corresponding cruise tourism destinations of various cruise ports are relatively independent.

Advanced stage—At the mature stage of cruise tourism development, the further subdivision and integration of the cruise ports and cruise routes lead to such an integrated cruise port and cruise route system that the cooperation between them is greater than competition. The corresponding cruise tourism destinations of various cruise ports are gradually integrated from the multiple tourism destinations of the cruise ships from individual ports to the single tourism destination of the cruise ships from multiple ports. The cruise tourism destination enters the stage of regional integration.

2 Integrated Development Path of Cruise Tourism Destination in the Yangtze River Delta

According to the integrated development law of cruise tourism destinations, the integrated development of cruise tourism in the Yangtze River Delta can be divided into three stages.

2.1 Formation of a Perfect Cruise Port System

The construction of cruise ports is the basis for cruise tourism development. The construction of new special-purpose cruise ports and reconstruction of passenger terminals along the river and the sea with added docking function on the basis of three dedicated cruise ports (Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal, Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal and Zhoushan Archipelago International Cruise Port) in the Yangtze River Delta will form a cruise port system with Shanghai Port as the home port and Ningbo Port, Zhoushan Port, Wenzhou Port, Taizhou Port, Jiaxing Port, Lianyungang Port, Nanjing Port, Zhenjiang Port, Wuxi (Jiangyin) Port, Nantong Port, Suzhou Port and other ports as departing ports and visiting ports.

The reasonable layout, scale, structure and functions of the cruise port system can meet the diversified demands for cruise departure, cruise call and onshore tourism, which can be combined into a Yangtze River Delta cruise route with international appeal and healthy competition and cooperation relationship among cruise ports. The cooperation organization of the cruise ports with a standing body coordinates the cooperation between cruise ports in the Yangtze River Delta. Enterprise groups play a crucial role in the integration of cruise port system.

2.2 Formation of Multiple Cruise Tourism Destinations of the Cruise Ships from Individual Ports

In combination with the overall plan for the urban tourism development, the cruise ports and corresponding tourism cities in the Yangtze River Delta have realized the integration between macroscopic urban plans, microcosmic urban design, the tourism functions of port cities and the tourism products of port cities. Cruise tourism becomes an important driving force for urban tourism, and urban tourism becomes an important development space for cruise tourism. A number of cruise tourism destinations with distinctive individual ports have been formed in the Yangtze River Delta.

At this stage, the competition between cruise ports turns into the competition between cruise tourism destinations. Since the integration of cruise tourism destinations hasn’t been completed, the competition between cruise tourism destinations is possibly greater than cooperation.

2.3 Formation of the Single Tourism Destination of the Cruise Ships from Multiple Ports

Various cruise ports constitute a perfect cruise port system based on the formation of the single tourism destination of the cruise ships from multiple ports. With the further promotion of regional tourism integration, various tourism cities complement each other’s advantages and various tourism hinterlands interact and integrate with each other, integrating the multiple tourism destinations of the cruise ships from individual ports to the single tourism destination of the cruise ships from multiple ports, and preliminarily realizing the integration of cruise tourism destinations in the Yangtze River Delta.

At this stage, the internal cooperation is greater than competition between cruise tourism destinations in the Yangtze River Delta. As an integrated region, the Yangtze River Delta competes against Caribbean, Mediterranean and other world-class cruise tourism destinations.