Recently, a series of highly visible branding exercises took place in shanghai. These events brought together a global perspective, attracted mid-level and outside guests, rang city brands and gave the world more “necessary” reasons. At the same time, they ignited the dynamism of cities, bringing people together, promoting consumption, stimulating water, breeding ecology, and constantly transforming them into growth dynamics. The city's charm is to be desired。
The liberation daily news has launched a series of stories entitled “new reasons for love shanghai”, which explores how shanghai can play a global brand with high-energy activities that can constantly increase the influence, attractiveness and competitiveness of cities。
"two days is not enough. Next time i have to stay for three weeks!" on 3 april, georgia from boston, united states of america, arrived on a cruise ship and, after completing her first day off the coast, lamented that it was better to have a day tomorrow。
This spring, the cruise terminal in shanghai was extremely busy. In the last weekend of march alone, four large cruise ships were docked at the international cruise ship port at wu xuan, shanghai. Of these, the number of incoming foreign tourists on 28 march was close to 5,900 and has been high since the launch of the cruise port; on 29 march, over 3,700 foreign tourists were on board in hundreds of buses。
According to the data, the number of incoming and outgoing visitors to and from the shanghai post line in 2025 exceeded 1. 8 million, an increase of 34 per cent over the previous year. Foreign tourists account for more than 120,000 of these, an increase of over 80 per cent over the same period. In the first quarter of 2026, the international cruise port of wu xuan accounted for 10 per cent of foreign tourists。
This series of jump-up figures has benefited from the policy dividend of china’s “friend-circle” expansion, which is a microcosm of shanghai’s continuing increase in city attractiveness through high-level activities, allowing global tourists to “scrambling”。
The international ferry port of wu xianguang is gathering foreign tourists to board the bus。
The cruiser + play, with super-expected experience
On 29 march, auntie wang, who had just boarded the first large national cruiser, the ida mordu, grabbed the arms of her girlfriend and lamented the “value” of the trip. On the same day, the ida cruiser joined forces to launch the first theme season of the sea film festival on the cruise, where hundreds of classic films were selected for display at the cruise theatre and professional actors were invited to travel with tourists。
The cross-border combination formed by the cruiser + has made it a moving scene for a collection of films, chinese medicine, non-removable, fashionable troupe. On the shore, the march 2026 cruise ship carnival in poshan river provides a seamless link between the non-removable features show, the drone pyrotechnic performance, etc., and the cruise ship, with a surprise for tourists。
The reason why shanghai attracts domestic and foreign tourists is that the city has a unique experience of different types of carding and a more sea-based way of life. Ms. Lai, from chongqing, came to shanghai for a second time on a cruise ship, and, as in the previous one, she went to shanghai a few days earlier to play and then boarded the boat. Unlike last time, she decided to go to gumura park to enjoy the sakura festival and enjoy it. María and her husband from germany took a ride to the “mahiv 6” and went on the first day to the outer beach, the ready garden, the javeh temple, to taste chinese foods, such as chickens, sugared fish, etc. The next day, she planned to go to the shanghai fair and feel the lives of shanghains。
The experience of these cruise-based tourists in shanghai is deepening. The traditional classic routes are linked to urban landmarks such as the jade buddhist temple, the ruling garden, and the lukji mouth “three packages”, which provide a visual sense of the internationalized urban nature of shanghai tradition and modernity. Today, in a completely new deep-trip mode, tourists from china and the world are going to the fields, to the steel market, to experience market fireworks and food on the market, and to “develop” individual ways of riding out of shanghai, watching shows at night, etc. “we have integrated into our journeys such consumer scenes as nanjing road walk street, shanghai new heaven and earth, and tianan tree, and will also be associated with major events or events in shanghai. For example, during the f1 grand prix, there was an f1 theme route, which allowed tourists to feel a strong car race atmosphere in the shanghai metropolitan area.” according to the head of the central brigade。
Georgia, led by jane, an english-language tour guide, walked into chang park to see the stonegate building and selected specialty products in the box. This sea culture is uniquely rich and diverse and has become the most real surprise for china for foreign tourists. She bought specialty foods such as youth packs, egg rolls, etc., and could not wait to taste them from the supermarket. At the terminal of the international passenger center, north beach, journalists met vincent from california, united states, and he said, “this is the second time i've come to shanghai, and shanghai is not enough, and when i saw this ship docked in shanghai, i immediately booked the tickets.”
Whether it is a “mail + cherry festivities” or a “ship + f1 grand prix”, shanghai uses the resources of the linguist exhibition in the city of the centre of the economy to link flowers, games, shopping and cruise routes. This multidimensional and multilayered landscape has allowed shanghai to become a tourist destination that tourists from both the middle and the outside are willing to experience over and over again. As jane has observed, foreign tourists are enthralled in shanghai’s middle-westerly westerland, classically integrated with modern-day sea culture, surprised by the modernization and friendship of shanghai, and this “exceeded” urban charm is also an important reason to attract them “to come back”。
On 29 march 2026, the first “three ships together” of the year of the horse came from the port of wu xianguang。
Innovation leads to global destination
The first thing for many foreign tourists to leave the ship at the international cruise port of wu xuan is to line up for money at the foreign currency exchange window where they arrive. This window has been newly created in recent years for service travel. Similar details are available, reflecting the shift of the shanghai cruise economy from a mere pursuit of scale to the construction of quality ecology。
In 2019, shanghai began the creation of china's first cruise-ship tourism development demonstration zone, which promotes high-quality industrial upgrading. In recent years, shanghai has made a breakthrough through service, planning and institutional innovation, out of the v-type curve of cruise ship visitors. In june 2025, the hymns “serena” successfully operated in a cross-border multi-mother port and exchanged tourists from shanghai and south korea ports. Since then, the ida cruise ship, the royal caribbean cruise ship, the mediterranean cruise ship, and so on, have all opened a multi-mother port operation involving shanghai. The cruise company also directs foreign tourists by air to the port of shanghai. The royal caribbean sea spectra, which sailed from the port of shanghai on 21 march, accounted for up to 88 per cent of incoming visitors and nearly 3700 foreign tourists, covering countries such as the russian federation, the united states, the united kingdom, australia and singapore. This means that shanghai is no longer just a “home camp” for chinese tourists, but is the preferred place for global tourists to enter china。
“the chinese market is not only an important `passenger' for mediterranean cruise ships, but also an indispensable `world-class destination' on global routes.” the president of the china region of the mediterranean cruise ship and the platinum luxurious cruise ship, hoang rui ling, said: a growing number of cruise companies use shanghai as a key point on the global route. This year, for the first time ever, the mediterranean cruise ship introduced a global route to mainland china, choosing to dock in shanghai. The visit on 29 march brought in more than 2,000 travelers from more than 20 countries and territories around the world。
When shanghai became a world-class cruise destination, the rotation of mail generated dividends for urban commerce. The number of visitors to the long beach towers in the cruise area continues to increase; in urban areas, the shopkeepers of the yu yao food market have begun to learn their own english, and a medium-sized snack shop on the road to jeon an is well known. Shanghai malls and small shops have benefited from this, and the scale of tax rebates for departure from shanghai has been the highest in the country for a decade. The silky experience of getting off the ship is consumption, leaving or tax refunds, and is also the attraction of foreign tourists in shanghai。
The royal caribbean cruise ship ocean spectra carried nearly 3700 foreign guests on 21 march, representing 88 per cent of the total。
“the san kong convergence”, solid cruise economy
“shanghai is building a regional hub for cruise economy in asia and the pacific.” in the shanghai programme of action to promote the high-quality development of the international mailer economy (shanghai action programme), the senior research fellow of the shanghai international centre for the study of the mailer economy identified the three ports of “junction port, headquarters port, manufacturing port” for development and laid a solid foundation for the high-quality development of the cruise ship economy。
The hub port tests the supply capacity. A large cruise ship has a passenger capacity of 5,000 people, a voyage of about five days and a very large number of items and items, including food, household goods, etc., are required for a voyage, with more than 30,000 passengers. In recent years, shanghai has accelerated the development of indigenous ship supplies through the operation of the large national-owned cruise ship ida mordu. According to the data, in the first half of 2025, direct local purchases in shanghai amounted to $150 million, of which the local purchases in poshan amounted to $66 million, an increase of 12 per cent over the same period. For the first time, special items such as medicines and medical devices were delivered directly to cruise ships。
The hq port reflects a concentration effect. As china's only “demonstration zone” for cruise-ship tourism development, baoshan has gathered chinese cruisers, chinese cruise ships, ida cruisers, starbucks, mediterranean cruises and hymns to operate the flagship company. The new landing of the shanghai shangyang xuan mail lines ltd., the regional operating headquarters of shanghai (hong kong) ltd., highlighted the appeal of shanghai as an international cruise ship home port and the industrial clustering effect. The cruise economy has flourished, creating a strong human magnetism field. On 17 march this year, the first chinese captain, wei ji-hye, assumed the title of the ida mordu. The crew of the ship was also recruited in shanghai, from the crew of the decked aircraft, to the guides, restaurants, entertainers on board, and even to the operational management team on shore, with a large number of jobs reflecting the additional importance of the ship headquarters port to shanghai。
The manufacturing ports show strong verification. Two large domestic-owned cruise ships have been built on high-bridge ships outside the china shipping group flag, the second has been docked and a memorandum of cooperation has been signed for the third and fourth subsequent orders. In the town of gaodong in the new district of pudong, the cruise-ship specialty industry led by a high-bridge ship has brought together a number of cruise-ship-manufacturing enterprises, which have focused on the development of cruise-ship packages, production packages, design and development。
The whole industry chain elements of the cruise economy can be found in shanghai from manufacturing to operation, from breeding to carrying. As georgia expected, there would be more global tourists coming to shanghai on a cruise ship, or from shanghai looking at the world, and more people who would like to go to shanghai to dream. Whether it's for a city to board a ship, or because it's for a city, a living story is played here. That is why shanghai has developed its cruise economy — not only as a new engine of economic development, but also as a new reason to like shanghai for countless people。
Poster design: competition
