Liu Zhiliang

On September 16,the opening ceremony of the 2023 Qingdao International Cruise Festival,hosted by Qingdao International Cruise Port Service Administration,Qingdao Shibei District People's Government and Shandong Port Cruise Cultural Tourism Group,was held on Taidong Pedestrian Street,Shibei District,Qingdao.The 2023 Qingdao International Cruise Festival aims to continuously broaden the development channel of cruise economy and deeply integrate the cruise industry into the overall development of the city.

Highlighting cruise culture,the festival consists of a series of trendy activities covering sections such as cruise lectures titled “Sailing with the Wind”,classic movie presentations titled “Romantic Night on the Island”,fine crosstalk performances styled as “Entertaining Night on the Island”,concerts themed “Dynamic Night on the Island”,and an online shopping festival.In the form of the“Blue Dreams Star” cruise Qingdao +a number of recreational activities,with cruise culture as the core and trendy activities as the starting point,the event will gather music,movies,crosstalk,shopping and other elementst to present a one-month cruise cultural feast to the citizens and reate a brand-new cruise ship experience scene.

At the opening ceremony,Shanghai Blue Dreams International Cruise Co.,Ltd.and Qingdao Cruise Tourism Development Alliance promoted the cruise ship,route and visiting ports.On September 29,the Blue Dreams Star will make its maiden voyage to operate the Qingdao-Jeju-Shanghai international route,marking the resumption of the first batch of cruise ships in northern China.According to the itinerary information announced so far,the “Blue Dreams Star”’s “Mid-Autumn Festival +National Day” double festival voyage will bring a cross-city and crosscountry cruise tour for citizens and tourists.According to the introduction,the “Blue Dreams Star” Cruise closely adheres to the brand positioning of “national cruise”,integrates oriental aesthetics into the product design,adds trendy gameplay to the activity,highlights the national elements in the experience,and manifests the humanistic care in the trip.

This cruise festival has four characteristics of affinity,beneficial to people,integration and crossregion.Committed to improving the participation and experience of citizens in a more friendly way,it recruits cruise tourism volunteers from communities,schools,enterprises,institutions,etc.,to enhance people’s sense of participation and sense of achievement.At the same time,the cruise festival will continue to use high-quality public welfare performances,dutyfree shopping,cultural and creative souvenirs to benefit the people,and more cash vouchers and cruise tickets as super benefits.In terms of space,the cruise festival is integrated with cruise home port,Dabao Island,Taidong and other regions,with music,film,crosstalk and other art forms,and develop cruise tourism themed poker to deeply integrate Qingdao characteristic culture.In the future,it will also explore the integration with beer festival and music festival.

This cruise festival breaks out of the urban limits,and goes out of the cruise port area and Qingdao for the first time.Taking the city as a broader dimension,it holds activities in Yantai,Longkou and other places.In the future,it will go to a bigger stage,continue to enhance its influence,and create a new brand of Qingdao festival,a new IP of cultural tourism,and a new name card of the city.Next,Qingdao International Cruise Port Service Administration will gather all forces to attract cruise companies to arrange the routes in 2024;formulate a high-quality development plan for the cruise economy,deploy the industrial chain of “cruise+cultural tourism+health care” with the support of the Shandong Port Cruise Cultural Tourism Group,settle in the northern headquarters of Shanghai Blue Dreams Cruise,and collaborate with various cities in the Jiaodong Peninsula,establish a Northeast Asia cruise hub port,a cruise economy center and a talent center.