A leading global cruise event is to take place in the port city of Busan this week as demand for cruises in Asia continues to grow, creating potentially tremendous business opportunities for the global cruise industry, the city's port authorities said Wednesday.

Industry experts, businesses and the public will flock to the southern city to attend exhibitions, conferences and trade meetings for "Seatrade Cruise Asia 2016" that will open on Thursday for three days at the Busan Port International Passenger Terminal.

The event is the Asia-dedicated cruise industry event of the annual "Seatrade Cruise Global" organized by London-based business events planner UBM International Media.

The business-to-business event was supposed to be held in 2014 but the organizers had to scrap the plan for two consecutive years due to a series of unexpected incidents -? the Sewol ferry sinking off the southern coast of Korea in April in 2014 that killed more than 300 people and the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome last year.

Co-hosted by Busan Port Authority (BPA), Busan Metropolitan City and Korea Tourism Organization, the event will look into the present and future of Asia as an important source market for cruise passengers and as a key destination for cruise ship deployment.

Some 2,000 people from global cruise companies from 27 countries, global vacation companies including Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL), and the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) will attend the convention, the BPA said.

There will be discussion sessions and presentations by industry experts.

The "Korea and the Wider Asian Market" session on Thursday morning will be joined by industry heavyweights including Dr. Zinan Liu, president of the North APAC & China Region at Royal Caribbean International; Bruce Krumrine, vice president of Shore Excursions of Holland America Group; and Buhdy Bok, president of Costa Group Asia.

On Thursday afternoon, the port city plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with Chinese travel company CTRIP and RCCL to attract more Chinese cruise tourists and to bring the cruise company's mega 220,000-ton Oasis-class cruise ships to the city.

The next day, the city and the BPA will sign an MOU with Italian cruise company Costa Cruise for it to use Busan as a "home port,"

where a cruise ship is based. It is seen as a helpful condition by industry experts to vitalize the local cruise tourism industry.

The exhibition is open to the public on Saturday after the two-day business-only event. (Yonhap)