India’s five major ports are ready for cruise tourism

Pon Radhakrishnan, Minister of state for shipping and finance stated that five major ports have developed to facilitate cruise tourism.

“Chennai  in Tamilnadu, Mormugao in Goa, New Mangalore in Karnataka, Cochin in Kerala and Mumbai in Maharashtra are developed with dedicated cruise terminals and other related infrastructure for docking of cruise vessels and embarking and disembarking of cruise passengers,” said the minister while replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Earlier, a Task Force on Cruise Tourism has been formed jointly by the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Shipping with representatives of all major ports and stakeholders for coordinated efforts to create an enabling ecosystem for the development of Cruise Tourism in India. The Task Force meets regularly and the last meeting of the Task Force was held on 21.05.2018, the minister said.

During the year 2017-18, a total of 1,62,660 cruise passengers visited India at six major ports namely Mumbai Port, Chennai Port, Cochin Port, Kolkata Port, New Mangalore Port and Mormugao Port. During the same period, total 139 Cruise ships visited India at six major ports namely, Mumbai Port, Mormugao Port, New Mangalore Port, Cochin Port, Chennai Port and Kolkata Port.

The Government has already taken various steps to increase the flow of cruise tourists in the country.