LATAM success inspires government to boost cruise shipping in India

NEW DELHI: Inspired by the success of cruise shipping in the Caribbean, Latin American and South-East Asian nations, the government plans to exploit the vast untapped potential by setting-up dedicated cruise terminals outside ports.

"India's long coastline imparts a natural advantage to attract international cruise lines. Experience in Caribbean, Latin American and South-East Asian countries indicates that a huge amount of foreign exchange can be earned and employment can be generated onshore through the growth of cruise shipping and tourism," says a Shipping Ministry document prepared to promote cruise shipping.

It said India's advantages include its positioning in South Asia and its proximity to already popular cruise destinations would enable strong circuits to be created over a period of time.

Stressing on the need to promote such activities, it said: "The airports' passenger traffic in India has grown from 123.7 million in FY10 to 169.06 million in FY14 at a CAGR of 8.3 per cent, driven by a growth in international as well as domestic passenger traffic.

"On the other hand, the number of cruise passengers (domestic as well international) has halved from 0.21 million to 0.11 million over the same period."

Stating that at present there are no domestic cruise vessels operating on the Indian coast (excluding inland waterways), the paper stressed on the need to augment infrastructure at ports to attract international passengers.

"Given the inherent potential of India as a tourist destination, there is an opportunity to revive cruise tourism in India, which holds an immense potential," it said, adding that this would involve actions primarily around four key areas, including infrastructure and development of facilities.

"We need to upgrade our facilities in line with those at international cruise terminals and explore developing dedicated cruise terminals at potential ports and develop infrastructure at select non-major ports," it said, adding that based on experience from Singapore, dedicated cruise terminals outside the ports could be set up.

There are 12 major ports in the country and about 187 non-major ports dotting the 7,500-km coastline and over 14,500 km of navigable inland waterways for cargo transport.