The cruise ship sector at the Port of Keelung is expected to continue its growth in 2018 at an impressively healthy clip. In addition to the long-term, stable expansion of Star Cruise Line business, recent Keelung homeport operators such as Princess and Costa Cruise lines are expecting to increase their Keelung departures in 2018 by more than 70% over the previous year. Further, Keelung expects to see 38% more cruise ship port calls during the present year. Strong and diverse growth in cruise ship traffic suggests that the cruise ship sector at the Port of Keelung has already settled in as a mature and multifaceted industry. The Port of Keelung now hosts cruise ships year-round. Star Cruises’ SuperStar Gemini and the Costa neoRomantica have both scheduled January itineraries through Keelung, while Asia’s highest-rated cruise ship, Princess Lines’ Majestic Princess, will launch its exclusive late March – early April sakura blossom voyage from Keelung. Moreover, SkySea Cruise Line is scheduled to launch its first Taiwan homeport operation in Keelung on April 8th, with 27 Port-of-Keelung-based voyages scheduled between April and July. Other homeport cruise departure options at the Port of Keelung during 2018 include cruise vacations aboard the Superstar Virgo, Sun Princess, and Diamond Princess. As for international cruise port calls, the Caledonia kicks off Taiwan’s ‘island hopping’ season with a March 17th departure from Keelung. Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Jewel is scheduled to test Taiwan’s waters for the first time this year, while one of the world’s two ‘6-star’ cruise ships, the Europa 2, will call on the Port of Keelung for the second time in as many years. Clearly, Keelung has taken its place on the mantle of ‘must-visit’ ports in Pacific Asia. In terms of maiden voyages, Windstar Cruises’ Star Legend will make its maiden visit to Keelung on March 19th. Please visit the Port of Keelung’s Facebook fan page (https://www.facebook.com/KeelungPortServices/) or TIPC’s cruise vacation website (http://cruise.twport.com.tw/) for a regularly updated schedule of maiden visits to the port. The Port of Keelung is currently scheduled during 2018 to welcome 7 cruise ship arrivals carrying more than 10,000 passengers each. Cruise ships carrying an average of over 4,000 passengers, the equivalent of 5 Boeing passenger aircraft, are now the standard. To upgrade and expand its cruise-ship handling capabilities, the Port of Keelung is streamlining its passenger processing and baggage handling facilities. Immigration is being increased from 10 to 16 lanes, expanding processing capacity to 2,000 passengers per hour. Baggage facility renovations are expanding available baggage storage space to 3,000m2. Facility upgrades will speed passengers on to their destination by significantly reducing bottlenecks and waiting times. Related construction work is expected to wrap up in late August of this year. Once completed, the Port of Keelung looks forward to giving every arriving and departing passenger a memorable and enjoyably pleasant experience that reinforces and extends its growing reputation as one of Asia’s top cruise ship homeports. The Port of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan is seeing similarly brilliant growth in its cruise travel sector. Star Cruises has designated the port as a homeport for two of its luxury liners, SuperStar Gemini and SuperStar Aquarius, respectively, in April and between June and July, with a total of 21 northbound and southbound voyages currently scheduled, offering over 30,000 cruise-vacation berths. 2018 will mark the first time in its 20 years of Taiwan operations that Star Cruises will operate two of its ships out of the Port of Kaohsiung. Star Cruises’ southbound itinerary includes a call at Hong Kong, while the northbound itinerary includes calls at Okinawa and Miyakojima islands. The short 3~5-day duration of these itineraries is the length preferred by most Taiwan cruise vacation-goers. Star Cruises is also offering a brand-new 3-day, 2-night excursion cruise to the Penghu Archipelago, opening the door on luxury cruise travel to this necklace of beautiful islands in the Taiwan Strait. In support of the Executive Yuan’s promotion of the domestic cruise ship industry and of the national ‘southbound’ policy, TIPC is aggressively promoting the growth of cruise homeport operations at both Keelung and Kaohsiung. The modern infrastructure necessary for homeport operations at the Port of Kaohsiung is steadily coming into place. The new Port of Kaohsiung Passenger Terminal, scheduled for completion in 2019, will deliver on its promises of exceptional arrival and departure experiences for passengers, with facilities capable of comfortably processing up to 2,500 homeport passengers per hour. As part of efforts to entice new and expanded homeport operations, the Port of Kaohsiung announced in February a new package of incentives for cruise ship operators to establish and maintain Kaohsiung-based homeport routes. The package includes subsidies of NT$3~5 million per voyage. Qualified travel agents working with cruise-ship operators or companies are encouraged to contact TIPC to submit an application. TIPC looks forward to these incentives bringing new homeport routes to the Port of Kaohsiung, bringing significant economic benefit to the region’s cruise ship economy, and infusing new value and vitality into Kaohsiung’s tourism sector. For further information regarding this press release, please contact: Pei-ling Lin, Manager, Marketing & Logistics Dept., TIPC Tel: 07-2136920 e-mail: peiling @twport.com.tw