India has now entered into air bubble agreements with Iraq, Japan and Nigeria, taking the total count to 13 for countries it has established such agreements with. For Nigeria, seamen of foreign nationalities and seamen holding Indian passports will also be allowed subject to clearance from the Ministry of Shipping.
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In order to promote cruise tourism in the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs has, on request of the Ministry of Shipping, exempted cruise tourists arriving with e-visa from the requirement of biometric enrolment for a period of three years i.e. till December 31, 2020. This will make immigration clearance of such passengers faster, leaving them with more time to spend on shore. The shipping ministry has been working towards simplifying the immigration clearance procedure and providing passengers a customer-friendly and hassle-free logistics process at Indian ports. E-visa has been in the place in five major ports of Mumbai, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin and Chennai. Till now biometrics of passengers were required at port of first arrival for immigration clearance. However, with the existing facilities at the cruise terminals at these ports, the immigration procedure was taking more than the internationally accepted norm of clearing immigration for all cruise passengers in a maximum of 90 minutes. This is especially significant because, as per the schedule of arrivals of cruise ships for the current cruise season 2017-18 and 2019-20, many of the cruise ships coming to India are mega ships with 2000-4000 passengers on board. Most of these cruise passengers are expected to arrive on E-Visa, and biometric enrolment of all these passengers would slow down immigration clearance. Hence the need for the exemption.
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The Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with Ministry of Shipping will prepare an action plan for development of cruise tourism in India. MOT intends to promote cruise shipping and tourism in a big way and will be an important element of the Incredible India 2.0 campaign. The Netherlands-based consultant Bermello Ajmali has prepared a report on cruise tourism in India, which has a low penetration rate in the sector. During the National Workshop on Cruise Tourism conducted by MOT and Ministry of Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Government of India, said, “The report prepared on cruise tourism by the foreign consultant will be discussed and the action plan will be ready in next 3-4 months. Next year is going to be very good for cruise tourism in India.” At present, India has a very small share in world cruise tourism market, as against 23 million passengers globally in 2016. Various stakeholders from the ministry of tourism, Shipping ministry, Bureau of Immigration, Central industrial Security Force (CISF), department of Revenue (Customs) and policy consultants etc. came together to discuss the nuances of the action plan to be put in place. Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister for Tourism, Government of India, said that cruise tourism will be a game changer for tourism sector as it helps in foreign exchange earnings as well as job creation. Rashmi Verma, Secretary-tourism, Government of India, informed that in 2013-14 only 103 cruise ships visited India which increased to 158 in 2016-17 and in 2013-14, 80,645 cruise passengers disembarked in India which grew to 191,725 passengers in 2016-17. She said, “This workshop is a landmark in promotion of cruise tourism in India and …
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