The Chinese cruise ship Adora Mediterranea seen in this file photo off the coast of Qingdao, East China"s Shandong Province on September 14, 2025. Photo: VCG

　　Adora Cruises, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp, said that its vessels had collectively served 1 million domestic and international passengers as of Sunday. The figure represents a milestone in the development of China"s domestic cruise industry, industry experts said.

　　In another sign of the fast-track development of the domestic cruise sector, the company said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Sunday that China"s second domestically built large cruise ship, the Adora Flora City, is 91 percent complete with all components fully connected.

　　The ship is expected to be delivered before the end of the year, and is set to offer domestic and international guests a "more elegant, more tech-savvy, and more Chinese" maritime cultural exploration journey, the company said.

　　The company operates three large-scale vessels - the domestically built Adora Magic City, the Adora Mediterranean, and the Gulangyu.

　　"Cruise tourism is an indispensable part of the global travel business, and China is relatively a late starter in this field. However, as the domestic cruise industry takes off, with a whole-of-supply-chain approach encompassing manufacturing, operation and related port services, the relatively new business form is set to provide immense opportunities for the domestic tourism sector and for boosting domestic consumption," Song Ding, a research fellow at the China Development Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday.