China tipped to eclipse US as top cruise market

The operator has seen growth double each year since it established its first home port in China in 2010, Bayley said, adding that passenger traffic this year is likely to hover around a quarter of a million people.

Princess Cruises is also offering longer options and plans to expand its operating season in Shanghai this year before moving on to Tianjin, it said.

"Once travelers get the bug, they realize that four or five days aren't long enough," said Wang Ping, Princess Cruises' country director for China.

The company is now offering an 11-day trip from Shanghai to Japan that takes in popular destinations such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Jeju Island in South Korea.

The number of people from China opting to travel on cruise liners grew at an average rate of 79 percent between 2012 and 2014. The 697,000 trips made by tourists from the mainland in 2014 almost matched those from the rest of Asia (701,000), according to research by the Cruise Line International Association.

With 10 million of its nationals taking cruises each year, the US now ranks as the world's biggest market worth about $40 billion, according to Cheng.

China is on course to overtake the UK as the No 2 market by 2020, when the Middle Kingdom will have three world-class home ports, he added. Last year, 1.8 million people in the UK booked cruises overseas.

"It is just a matter of time before China surpasses the US, too," Cheng said.

In the near future, this emerging industry will require huge capital, technologies, service and talented personnel, thus triggering huge business opportunities, according to a representative of Ctrip.com.

Li Xueqing in Shanghai contributed to this story.