Tag Archives: Cruise Tourism

A national side event on ‘Making India a hub for Cruise Tourism’ organized at 4th TWG meeting. The focus areas of discussion was during the event were principles of sustainability & multiple facets from Coastal States, private & public stakeholders in cruise tourism

In view of the growing potential of Cruise Tourism and the vast opportunities that it presents, Ministry of Tourism is organizing side events on Cruise Tourism on the sidelines of the fourth G20 Tourism Working Group meeting at Goa from 19-20 June 2023

Kishan Reddy, Minister of Tourism & Culture has informed that to harness the potential of Cruise Tourism in the country, a Task Force has been constituted with Secretary (Tourism) as the Chairman and Secretary (Shipping) as the Co-chairman.

G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Tourism, on his recent visit to Goa, said that the MOT is working in synergy with the Rail Ministry, Civil Aviation and Shipping Ministry to encourage cruise tourism under Sagar Mala. “Cruise tourism will be developed on a mission mode which will greatly benefit Goa,” he said. He also informed that there are plans to connect Chennai, Vizag and Andaman with Goa through cruise tourism.

As cruise tourism gains momentum in India after a successful trial of cargo movement to Bangladesh via the inland waterways protocol route, a transboundary river cruise operation is expected to start from Kolkata in March next year through Sunderbans to Bangladesh first, and then towards the Northeast, a senior official said. SVK Reddy, Member, Inland Waterways Authority of India, during a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in the city recently, said, “Bilateral secretary-level meetings between India and Bangladesh were held in October. It has been decided that one of the river cruise operators would be starting operations from March 2019 from Kolkata through Sunderbans via the protocol route to Bangladesh and then to northeast.” Abdus Samsah, Shipping Secretary, Bangladesh had earlier said that private players will be allowed to operate river cruise between the two countries, which will cover about 1,539 km. Both sides also agreed to allow private operators to run cruise to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. Reddy also informed that night navigation facility has been installed up to the Indian border, while Bangladesh is expected to do the same. He said India has agreed to fund up to 80 per cent of the dredging cost in some identified stretches within Bangladesh in the Indo-Bangla protocol route to make it navigable.

With the aim to increase the geographical spread of arrivals to the state, Kerala Tourism plans to promote its Malabar region aggressively through a Rs 325 crore project. This includes unexplored destinations such as Kozhikode, Wayanand, Bekal and Kannur. This was revealed by P. Bala Kiran, IAS, Director, Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala. He says, “To promote river cruise, the Government of Kerala has envisioned a Rs 300-crore project for nine rivers in Kannur and Kasaragod. In order to ease travel for international tourists, Cochin International Airport has been entrusted to execute the cruise tourism project by forming a Special Purpose Vehicle. In addition, the state government is planning to develop a few adventure parks as well. The government has allocated Rs. 45 crore for the Prasadam project in Kasaragod and Rs 120 crore for Green Carpet scheme for Alappuzha, Enranjil, Neyyar and Thenmala.” The state government also plans to develop 10 eco-tourism circuits to connect various forests in order to promote green tourism.  

Dubai Tourism conducted a cruise tourism roadshow in New Delhi on July 21, 2016. The 6-city roadshow aims at fostering a close working relationship with key members of the Indian travel fraternity. Speaking at the roadshow, Jamal Humaid Al Falasi, Director, Cruise Tourism, said, “This is our second roadshow in India. Last year we did the roadshow in three cities, but since we see a huge demand from India, this year we are doing it in six cities. This would allow us to have more passengers opting for cruises from Dubai. The number of cruise tourists to Dubai has increased substantially over the years. From 6904 tourists in 2001, we recorded 463,055 cruise tourists in 2015 and are aiming to 1 million by 2020. India’s ranking as a cruise source market for Dubai was 21 in 2013 and it came to 14 in 2015.” The participating cruise companies included MSC Cruises; Costa Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruises represented by Tirun Travel Marketing in India. Carl Vaz, Director, Dubai Tourism–India, said, “This time we are travelling to six cities for the Dubai Cruise Tourism Roadshow—Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. We’ve been very fortunate in 2015 to have 1.6 million Indian overnight  visitors in Dubai, these include hotel and hotel apartments guests as well.”

With the objective of promoting Cruise Tourism in India, a Task Force on Cruise Tourism has been constituted by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. The Task Force comprises members from the central ministries, state governments, various port trusts and private sector. As per the decisions taken by the Task Force on Cruise Tourism, Port Level Facilitation Committees have been set up by port authorities under the chairmanship of respective port trust chairman for coordinating logistic issues with all concerned agencies prior to the landing of cruise vessels. This information was given by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (Independent Charge) and Minister of State for Civil Aviation in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. The maiden Maritime India Summit, 2016 (MIS-2016) was organised by the Ministry of Shipping in Mumbai from April 14 to 16, 2016. The objective of the Summit was to create awareness of the untapped potential of Indian maritime sector and showcase investment opportunities. The focus was on presenting India as an attractive investment destination and encourage potential investors for investing in the Indian Maritime Sector.