Europe's Stena Line ferries in China deal

The Swedish ferry company has signed an agreement with China's Ctrip.

The deal will see tickets for the company's services crossing the Irish Sea being sold on Ctrip - the largest travel agent in China.

The Swedish ferry company has signed an agreement with China's Ctrip.[Photo:sina.com.cn]

This could be helpful to the growing number of Chinese tourists in the UK and Ireland who are taking self-driving holidays, although Stena Line's services are also open to foot passengers.

Speaking about the new agreement, Stena Line’s CEO Niclas Mårtensson, said:“We are very excited about the cooperation with Ctrip and see this agreement as strategically important for Stena Line which will enable us to access a rapidly expanding market. It is our projection that we will reach 50,000 Chinese passengers across our routes on the Irish Sea by 2018, where we already have quite a few Chinese passengers travelling with us.”

In a press release, the company explained that China is an exciting market for Stena Line for a number of reasons.

This Autumn, the construction of four new flexible and fuel-efficient RoPax ferries will start at the Chinese shipyard AVIC on behalf of Stena Line.

The vessels will be delivered during 2019 and 2020 and the plan is to locate the new vessels on Stena Line’s Irish Sea routes.

Stena Line is one of Europe's leading ferry companies with 36 vessels and 20 routes in Northern Europe.

The company operates the biggest fleet and the widest choice of routes between Ireland and Britain with an extensive route network including Belfast to Cairnryan, Belfast to Liverpool, Belfast to Heysham, Dublin Port to Holyhead and Rosslare to Fishguard.