Cunard cruise line will enter Chinese market in 2017, starting to operate a seven-night roundtrip loop from Shanghai with the line's flagship, Queen Mary 2.

Queen Mary 2 will sail out a seven-night roundtrip loop from Shanghai in 2017. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The company said on March 26 that this marks the first time Cunard has conducted a loop from any Chinese cruise port. The seven-night roundtrip will start from Shanghai and visit destinations in South Korea and Japan.

Cunard Line is a British-American cruise line based at Carnival House in Southampton, England, celebrating 175 years of operation in 2015.

To catch the wave of travelers expected to sail out of China over the next few years, cruise lines are investing heavily in new and remodeled ships, and, in some cases, are relocating their most modern and luxurious ships to China ports.

Shanghai is the most important homeport for cruise ships in China, which handled 320 homeport cruise calls and nearly 1.6 million homeport passenger trips in 2015.

Princess Cruises, the third largest cruise line in the world and part of Carnival Corporation & Plc, announced in February the expansion of its presence in China by launching a new homeport in Xiamen, Fujian province, this year, and debuting the cruise ship Majestic Princess that is specially tailored for the China market in 2017, with its homeport in Shanghai.

The total number of Chinese homeport cruise ship travelers reached 2.22 million passenger trips in 2015, and China's cruise industry is set to grow faster in the next decade, according to the 2015 China Cruise Industry Development Report published in February.