Nevin John
RAVISHING Indian beaches will witness a record increase in the inflow of
foreign tourists during March and April, 2007. Over 15 international cruise
liners have confirmed their voyages to Mumbai Port during the summer, and
almost 10,000 foreign tourists are expected land in the city. Some of the
vessels will also call in at Goa and Kochi. The cruise liners of global
majors including P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Hapag Lloyd, Silver Lines,
Transocean, Holland USA, Radisson, Cunard Lines, Seaborn Cruises and
Renaissance Cruises are expected to call at Indian ports in the coming
moths.
“In March and April, 14 cruise ships will visit Mumbai port, and we are
expecting one vessel in May. Already 17 vessels have come to Mumbai port in
the current cruise year (September 2006-May 2007) and over 10,000 passengers
were in the vessels. With the 15 more vessels we are expecting in the next
three months, the total calls would go up to a record 32,” said a Mumbai
port official. In the last cruise year, Mumbai port handled 18 vessels and
10,612 tourists from across the globe visited the country. The tourists
visiting India are mainly from Germany, England, France, Italy and US. The
department of tourism plans to increase the number by at least 50% every
year. At the domestic side, Star Cruises had 84 calls at Mumbai port, which
may go up to 127 this year. There were almost 50,000 domestic cruise
passenger arrivals in the last year.
In order to guarantee berths for passenger vessels, Mumbai Port Trust
(MbPT) plans to construct an exclusive greenfield cruise terminal at an
estimated cost of Rs 168 crore on built-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The
board of MbPT had given in-principle approval for constructing terminal with
two berths and the port would appoint a consultant to conduct
techno-economic feasibility study. The port is facing severe berthing
problems for vessels after Star Cruises selected Mumbai as its home port for
vessel Super Star Libra. “India has diverse varieties of beaches and rough
lava-rocked seas, placid backwaters, lagoons and marine estuaries with fish.
Foreign tourists are aware of it and want to visit the country. But to cash
in on the situation, the authorities has to act fast by setting up necessary
infrastructure,” said a regular German tourist.