Qingdao Opens Tender to Review Coastal Cruise Ship Design
The tender describes the vessel as a near-sea luxury sightseeing cruise ship for coastal tourism, and no shipyard or construction timetable has been released.
Qingdao Marine Tourism Development Co., Ltd. has issued a public tender for design review services for a planned 30,000-ton coastal cruise ship with capacity for 880 passengers. The state-owned project carries a budgeted investment of 3.74 billion yuan, about $515 million, and bids for the review contract are due in late May 2026.
The tender moves Qingdao’s first domestically developed coastal cruise ship into a formal technical review phase, but it is not a construction award. Public details on the design remain limited, and the project documents identify the current work as a review of technical plans for compliance, safety and feasibility.
Tender advances a smaller coastal cruise project
The vessel is described in the tender as a near-sea comprehensive luxury sightseeing cruise ship for coastal tourism. At 880 passengers, the Qingdao ship would be a different scale from Adora Magic City, the 136,201-GT ship delivered in 2023 with capacity for more than 5,200 guests.
Qingdao Marine Tourism Development is directly under Qingdao Tourism Group, a municipal state-owned tourism company. The project fits into Qingdao’s broader marine tourism planning, which identifies Shinan District as the city’s core marine tourism area; the district has also been designated a provincial-level modern marine industry cluster.
No shipyard has been officially selected. Industry insiders have identified Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding as the likely candidate, citing its cruise-ship track record, but the tender itself is limited to the design review process and does not confirm a builder.
SWS experience frames the yard question
Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, part of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, delivered Adora Magic City in November 2023 and is building China’s second large domestically built cruise ship, Adora Flora City. That second vessel, a 141,900-GT ship with capacity for 5,232 passengers, began a 12-day sea trial program on May 15.
The Adora Flora City trials include 149 tests and verifications, with 937 engineers and technical personnel from 12 countries aboard. CSSC has scheduled delivery for Nov. 6, after which the ship is due to enter service from Guangzhou Nansha International Cruise Home Port on regional itineraries to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and other Asian destinations.
The Qingdao proposal is much smaller than those large-ship projects, but SWS’s role in China’s cruise construction program explains why the yard is being watched as a potential builder. CSSC and Adora Cruises also announced plans in March for additional cruise ships using a Chinese-developed design and more Chinese suppliers, with two ships ordered and an option for a third.
Key project decisions remain open
The immediate step is the late-May bid deadline for design review services. That review is expected to assess whether the proposed technical plan meets required safety, compliance and feasibility standards before the project can move toward later procurement stages.
Qingdao has not released a detailed public design, construction timetable or yard award for the ship.
