Busan Metropolitan City has launched a full-scale strategy to transform cruise tourism from "passing-through tourism" to "stay-and-experience tourism." The plan aims to shift the tourism paradigm beyond simply increasing port calls to a structure that extends visitor stay times and spending.
The city announced on April 9 that it has established the "2026 Global Cruise Tourism Promotion Strategy" and begun strengthening its cruise tourism competitiveness. The goal is to elevate Busan into a leading cruise hub in Northeast Asia in response to the global cruise market recovery and changing tourism trends.
A total of 447 cruise ship port calls are scheduled for Busan Port this year, with approximately 800,000 visitors expected. Expectations for expanded tourist inflows are growing particularly as cruise arrivals from China increase significantly.
The city is pursuing related policies centered on four core strategies: marketing diversification, tourism convenience enhancement, content advancement, and revisit-inducing design.
First, the city will strengthen targeted marketing aimed at global cruise lines and travel agencies, focusing on attracting luxury cruises and overnight cruises. The plan is to encourage conversion from port of call to homeport through expanding Busan as a departure point (Fly & Cruise), providing incentives for multiple port calls, and operating familiarization tours.
Tourism convenience will also be improved through introducing customized concierge services for independent tourists and expanding tourism information centers and interpreter staff. The city plans to minimize inconveniences cruise tourists experience during city travel and stays through shuttle bus operations and multilingual guidance system improvements.
The city is also strengthening content competitiveness for the transition to extended-stay tourism. The focus is on providing "experiences only possible in Busan" by combining experiential programs linked to local festivals, nighttime tourism content, culinary tourism, and traditional performances with K-culture products.
The design to encourage revisits is particularly notable. The city plans to convert visitor experiences into data and reflect them in policy through farewell performances, photo zone operations, enhanced souvenir content, social media-linked promotions, and tourist satisfaction surveys.
This strategy is expected to lead to expanded port calls and increased spending in the short term, and cruise industry ecosystem development and infrastructure expansion in the mid-to-long term.
Amid this trend, French luxury cruise line Ponant's "Le Soléal" is serving as a test case for Busan's homeport strategy. The vessel is a small luxury cruise with approximately 200 passengers, operated as a 100% foreign tourist homeport with Busan as both departure and arrival point.
Following its first port call in March, the ship is scheduled to visit Busan four times through April and May. Its second visit on April 12 will operate as an overnight cruise with a two-day, one-night itinerary. The city and Busan Tourism Organization plan to effectively extend tourist stay times by preparing nighttime tour programs linking Yongdusan Park and Busan Tower.
The city expects this homeport cruise expansion to generate ripple effects across the regional economy, including accommodation, dining, and shopping, beyond simple tourism.
"We will transform cruise tourism from simply passing-through tourism to a tourism model where visitors deeply experience the city's charm and want to return," Busan Mayor Park Heong-jun said. "We will seize the opportunities from global market recovery and increasing demand from China to grow Busan into Northeast Asia's leading cruise hub city."