In response to rising global demand for cruise vacations, the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries unveiled a road map for the cultivation of the cruise industry on Wednesday.

According to the Cruise Lines International Association, the prolonged global economic downturn has had little impact on the double-digit growth of the global cruise industry. The industry has grown on average 10.3 percent annually between 2000 and 2012. Last year alone, 20 million cruise vacationers worldwide spent $36.2 billion.

“With the cruise industry globalizing, the world’s leading cruise lines are turning to the Asian market ― in particular, the Northeast Asian region ― for future growth,’’ the ministry said in a press release.

However, the cruise industry in Korea is still in the early stages of development. The first domestic cruise ship, named Harmony Cruise with a capacity to accommodate up to 1,000 passengers, was launched in January last year, but financial trouble sunk it into bankruptcy in December.

To develop the lucrative industry, the ministry said it will put priority on advancing infrastructure of four ports in Incheon, Yeosu, Busan and Jeju for cruise ships, while deregulating to allow domestic cruise lines to run an onboard casinos for foreign passengers.

Currently, Yeosu, Busan and Jeju ports have one cruise-ship-only terminal each and those terminals can only accommodate an 80,000-ton cruise ship. The Incheon port has no terminal for cruise ships and so cruisers that want to anchor in the Incheon port must use a terminal for freight ships.

The ministry will build four cruise-only terminals in key ports to accommodate 100,000-ton cruise ships and larger by 2015.

To lure foreign cruises to stay here longer, the ministry is in talks with the Ministry of Justice to simplify the entry process for passengers of foreign cruise ships.

One of the ministry’s key policies to cultivate domestic cruise ships is to lift the ban on onboard casinos for foreign passengers.

“The opening of a foreigners-only onboard casino has been recently legalized, but developing clear and detailed guidelines for the onboard casino operations are still needed,” Nam Jae-heon from the ministry said.

Another key reason for development of the local cruise industry is job creation: Launching a 30,000-ton local cruiser could add about 968 jobs, the ministry estimated.

Despite the infant stage of development, the ministry had a positive outlook for the demand of foreign cruisers for the Korean route, owing to a growing number of Chinese passengers who look for cruise ships to have a route to Korea.

Last month, the 140,000-ton Mariner of the Seas, a voyager-class cruise ship from the Royal Caribbean, anchored in the Incheon port for the first time. This is the biggest cruise ship that has ever come to Korea.

By Seo Jee-yeon  (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)