Port of Kaohsiung marked its post-pandemic reopening to international cruise ships today (March 6th) with the arrival of two international cruise ships. The Marshall Islands-registered Seven Seas Explorer and Netherlands-registered MS Westerdam both berthed along Kaohsiung City’s Love River at, respectively, the new Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal (KPCT) and Penglai Cruise Terminal. Port of Kaohsiung organized a ceremony at 10:00am to celebrate the formal opening of the KPCT  and to welcome the arrival of its inaugural customers. The ceremony, hosted by TIPC Chairman Hsien-yi Lee and TIPC President Shao-liang Chen, was attended by ROC Premier Chien-jen Chen, MOTC Deputy Minister Yen-po Chen, Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Charles Lin, and other senior officials. During the ceremony, TIPC Chairman Lee presented the two cruise ship captains with gifts to commemorate the event and the relaunch of Port of Kaohsiung’s cruise market.

After the completion of berthing operations at 07:00 this morning, welcoming ceremonies for the passengers were held in both passenger terminals featuring lively indigenous Austronesian dance and Song-Jiang battle array performances. Port of Kaohsiung CEO Chin-jung Wang and Vice President Jian-Rong Su personally presented passengers with commemorative red envelopes to further impart a warm and festive welcome. In addition, Port of Kaohsiung arranged a variety of fun, participatory activities, including introductions to indigenous clothing and accessories, bead-weaving DIY, and calligraphy, to engage the visitors in local culture and heritage.

TIPC Chairman Lee remarked that Port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s largest international commercial port, recognizes the historic significance of Seven Seas Explorer and MS Westerdam being the first to call at the port’s two newly opened passenger terminals. This further demonstrates, he said, the exceptional results being achieved in terms of both passenger and cargo performance as Port of Kaohsiung continues to adapt and transform for sustained success. The concurrent arrival of these two ships, he continued, further highlight the wisdom of the decision to construct two state-of-the-art passenger terminals. He stressed that Port of Kaohsiung would continue to improve soft and hard infrastructures at these terminals to support ongoing digital transformation plans in order to optimize services for terminal users and clients and create a world-class environment at the Port of Kaohsiung that will further help cultivate and grow cruise market opportunities.

The newly opened, state-of-the-art Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal  is streamlined to take advantage of post-pandemic cruise vacation market growth opportunities. Two levels of the KPCT are dedicated to passenger clearance. The immigration stations (22 manned and 4 automated gates) located on the second floor may be flexibly staffed based on arrival / departure numbers. Customs and Coast Guard security stations on the first and second floors operate a total of 12 X-ray machines, sufficient for peak handling needs. The KPCT is set along the east bank of the Love River, with 726m of berthing space between Wharf Nos. 17~21 and a standard water depth of 10m available to accommodate cruise ships of all types up to 250,000GT. Two extendable passenger bridges jointly developed by FMT Sweden AB and Taiwan’s King Yours Corp. have been installed that are easily adjustable to facilitate embarkation and disembarkation from any passenger ship. The application center for automated passport control access on the second floor is available for Taiwan citizens to obtain approval to use automated passport control gate services. In addition, passengers can take advantage of the duty free retail shops operated by Everrich Duty Free. Automated currency exchange and sales-tax refund machines are also conveniently located in the main check-in hall. Passengers may also avail themselves to the extensive local tourism and transportation information available at the i-center visitor services lounge. Furthermore, to facilitate communication and foster seamless multilingual accessibility, simultaneous interpretation devices have been installed at service stations on the first and second floors for voice translation to and from four languages (Mandarin, English, Japanese, and Korean). As part of Port of Kaohsiung’s smart-port transformation initiative, a crowd monitoring system has been installed to inform terminal users in real time about levels of congestion at key areas within the building. With more smart soft and hardware infrastructure on the way, the Kaohsiung Port Terminal Building is well prepared to provide reliable, comprehensive, world-class services to all of its domestic and international passenger customers.

Port of Kaohsiung President Chin-jung Wang shared that both Seven Seas Explorer and MS Westerdam had both left the Philippines on the previous day and had brought a total of 2,527 international passengers to Kaohsiung. Tomorrow (March 7th), he continued, both were scheduled to call at Port of Keelung. Although this marks the maiden visit of Seven Seas Explorer to Kaohsiung, MS Westerdam is not only a familiar sight at the port but was the last international cruise ship to call at Kaohsiung (February 5th, 2020) before the COVID-19 pandemic closure. This gives added significance to the first call in three years of MS Westerdam at Penglai Cruise Terminal. As part of efforts to drum up excitement and interest in Port of Kaohsiung as a cruise ship destination, President Wang led a delegation in December of last year (2022) to visit Japanese cruise ship operators and cruise travel agencies to promote his port’s modern facilities, welcoming atmosphere, and many new tourism-oriented waterfront facilities such as Great Harbor Bridge and Kaohsiung Port Depot . According to reports, related cruise ship operators are actively considering incorporating Port of Kaohsiung into their cruise itineraries.

The 188 international cruise ship calls, including 164 homeport calls and 24 transit calls, currently scheduled to visit Port of Kaohsiung in 2023 represent a record-breaking new high. Moreover, most of the scheduled transit calls are top-tier cruise ships, highlighting the success of Kaohsiung’s cultural attractions in reeling in the top names in cruise vacations. During the fourth quarter, the Costa Serena is scheduled to take domestic passengers from Kaohsiung to Okinawa. Also, Resorts World One will launch a regular Kaohsiung-to-Hong Kong dual-homeport route in the second quarter that will continue for a full year, giving residents of southern Taiwan easy access to a short and fun ocean outing. As the Port of Kaohsiung’s cruise vacation market continues to recover and critical passenger service infrastructures at the port are completed and brought online, the outlook for the future is bullish. TIPC will continue to upgrade the port’s passenger facilities and increase service quality to improve both the business environment and the customer experience. This, coupled with related incentives, is expected to attract more cruise ship operators to put Kaohsiung on their regular routes, assuring southern Taiwan’s place on the East Asia cruise vacation map and breaking new ground for the cruise vacation industry at the Port of Kaohsiung.

To mark the arrival of the Seven Seas Explorer and Oceania Nautica to Port of Kaohsiung, respectively, on March 6th and 9th, the KPCTs third-floor Seaside Promenade (viewing platform) will be open to the public to witness these first post-pandemic calls from 12:00 – 16:00 on both days. As public parking will not be available for this special event, port officials encourage visitors to catch the bus (Yellow Line No. 1) or light rail to the Cruise Terminal Station. In the KPCT , take the elevator from the 1st floor to the 3rd floor Seaside Promenade to enjoy unparalleled, panoramic views of these modern luxury liners set against Kaohsiung City’s iconic skyline.