India is set to witness development in the ‘Cruise Tourism’ sector with four new cruise lines likely to start operations in the country in October – November this year.
In her presentation on the topic of ‘Developing India as a Cruise Hub’, Chairperson of Cochin Port Authority Dr Beena highlighted the development outline on the opening day of the G20 Tourism Working Group Meeting at Dona Paula, North Goa on Monday.
Considering that the Indian coastline and inland waterways have enormous potential to develop cruise tourism for both international and domestic level, the MIV Report 2030 has prioritized the following circuits.
Gujarat – Pilgrimage Tours
Gujarat can be developed into a dedicated circuit for Pilgrim tourism to tap into the existing huge market of four million tourists visiting Dwarka, Veraval, Somnath, Porbandar and Diu.
West Coast – Cultural and Scenic Tours
History and culture circuit can be developed on the western coast with attractions like Sindhudurg and other forts, historical, trading, temple and beach destinations and backwaters of Kerala.
South Coast – Ayurvedic Wellness Tours
Kerala ‘s coastline can be harnessed for Ayurvedic Wellness and scenic tourism. Existing ports along the state, cultural heritage and biodiversity can be leveraged to build the circuit.
East Coast – Heritage Tourism
Heritage attractions on the Eastern coast like Mahabalipuram, Sri Bhavanarayana Swamy Temple can be leveraged to create heritage themed circuits, to cater to the significant demand from both domestic and foreign tourists.
The four new cruise lines likely to start operations in India later this year, are Costa Cruise, MSC Cruise, Norwegian Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
Dr Beena’s presentation also drew attention to key points to be focused on as part of the ‘way forward.’
-Upgrading infrastructure facilities at Indian ports including non major ports to support future requirements of more number and bigger-sized ships in terms of lengths, drafts, beam, capacity.
-Analysing existing Standardised Operating Procedures vis-a-vis international cruise terminals and operations.
-Skill development initiatives to be implemented in the cruise tourism sector.
-Utilisation of digital platforms like NLP to enable ship/ passenger related documents to be disseminated to various authorities eliminating the requirement for submission of hard copies of the same.
-New activities that can be identified for value addition for tourists; examples – snorkeling tour, medical tourism, culture and heritage showcasing, etc.
-Potential linkages with India tourism/State tourism departments
-Feasibility for development of Ferry circuits across India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar.
-Expanding role of Indian Maritime Centre to establish a dedicated cruise action team for strong governance and overview mechanism.
-Development of island ecosystem across Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Islands as attractive cruise destinations.
