Guangzhou, Guangdong Province in southern China, is celebrating a decade of cruise industry growth as the first cruise route starting and ending at the Nansha International Cruise Home Port recently departed on a nine-day, eight-night Southeast Asia circuit. The voyage aims to kick off a busy 2026 season for the port.

The ship will call at Nha Trang in Vietnam, Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia’s Sabah state, and Muara in Brunei. A travel agency organized about 150 passengers for the sailing, and roughly 2,300 people boarded in total, yielding an 85 percent load factor. The voyage drew travelers from Guangzhou as well as visitors from countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom.

Since opening in 2016, the Nansha cruise home port has handled nearly 500 cruise calls and processed more than two million passengers. The year 2026 is considered a key milestone for Guangzhou’s cruise sector, with plans to introduce a second domestically built large cruise ship—named for the city and based at Nansha—before the end of the year.