A COSTA cruise liner from the Costa Cruise Lines Group in Italy will set off from Qingdao in June. It will be the first international cruise whose home port is Qingdao.

    “On June 16, Chinese visitors can get on board the cruise ship and visit famous cities such as Inchon and Jizhou Island in South Korea and later Shanghai during the six-day tour,” said Wei Zhizhong, sales director of the company.

    “Qingdao is an important tourism and harbor city in North China and has rich experience in cooperation with tourism liners. Besides Shandong Province, Qingdao can also attract tourists from provinces such as Henan, Hebei and Shanxi,” Wei said.

    Qingdao has started opening its ports to international liners since 1979 and has about 25 international liners arriving in the city every year on average. It has now become an official port to international liners, which will help promote areas such as tourism, service, material supply, waste disposal, employment and training.

    (Wang Yuanyuan, Fu Jun)