India’s cruise market is estimated to grow tenfold in a decade. While it’s the best time for cruise service providers to invest here, the Indian government is making all efforts to develop the segment with world-class infrastructure, an easier tax regime and quicker immigration and customs clearance for ship passengers.
Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister for Ports, Shipping, Waterways and AYUSH, said at the two-day launch event of the Incredible India International Cruise Conference (ICC): “We’re determined to position India as a global cruising hub with state-of-the-art infrastructure. Six major ports of Mumbai, Chennai, Goa, Kochi, Mangalore and Vishakhapatnam are being upgraded to international standards. Work on this started five years ago under the Sagarmala project and results were coming in, with 450,000 cruise passengers in 2019, just before the pandemic broke. Work was carried on even during the pandemic and continues to be so, with plans for the upgrade at 6 more ports.”
Speakers at ICC
Incredible India International Cruise Conference was organised by the India Ministry of Shipping, Ports and Waterways in association with the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) and was held at the Trident Hotel, Mumbai on 14 and 15 May.
India has 7500 kilometres of coastline and 14,500 kilometres of inland waterways. The cruise industry was growing at 35 percent annually before the pandemic.
Minister Sonowal said: “We have set up a high-level committee that includes both top government officials and industry players to create an ecosystem for the development of cruise tourism. We have also set up a task force that is chaired by the Secretary, of the Ministry of Tourism with the Secretary of, the Ministry of Shipping as the Vice-Chairman. The committee will coordinate with the task force in planning and execution.”
There is evidence of India’s ports in Kerala being popular spice trading hubs for thousands of years. Cruisers from different countries had more than trade on their minds and power, culture, craft and other exchanges too positively impacted their faraway journeys.
Dhruv Kotak, Managing Director, JM Baxi Group and Chairman FICCI Committee on Ports and Shipping, said: “New India’s enthusiastic travellers are highly cosmopolitan with good spending power, demographics of young population and wanting to spend money on quality experience onboard as well as offshore. Have noticed with my recent interactions with bureaucrats too that they understand what’s required to give passengers a good experience and are going all out to provide that.”
Goa cruise port
Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State, Ministry of Shipping laid the foundation for the third Chemical Berth at Pirpau Jetty in Mumbai. He also inaugurated(remotely) two new lighthouses at Kelshi in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra and Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu. These are developed to be tourist attractions. Kelshi lighthouse is spread over 10000 square meters of the area on India’s West Coast. Dhanushkodi Lighthouse on the East Coast is 42 meters high and offers a 360-degree view from its viewing deck. 100 such lighthouses are being set up across India.
Mumbai Port Authority is celebrating 150 years of its establishment and will have an event every day for 365 days, to commemorate the milestone.
Jurgan Bailom-President & CEO-Cordelia Cruises, said: “We’re in operation in India for 7 months. The journey hasn’t been smooth. A new market always has hiccups. I kept spending time with officials in-charge and they have well tackled the issues. We have bounced back, with everything sold out on our ship today. The time is right and business is growing very well. My second and third ships are on the way. I alone can’t handle this huge market. I appeal to international cruise companies to come to India. I can assure you that we’ll extend all the support by sharing our lessons learnt. If you don’t show up quickly, you’ll not have space to put your ships.” Cordelia is launching Chennai-Sri Lanka cruises from 4 June.
India is the fastest-growing cruise market and is expected to soon emerge among the top cruise destinations in the world.
Mr Kotak added: “It’s the best time for international investors to enter this Indian sector by building a local ecosystem through partnerships for different needs like seafarers, crew, F&B and other needs which can help them offset indirect taxes.”
Written by Madhura Katti
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