At 320% growth, cruise shipping flies in India

On Thursday, one of the largest luxury cruise passenger ships of the world, Spectrum of the Seas, made a call to Mumbai. A ship of this size came after Genting Dreams had sailed to Mumbai in November 2016.

Prior to these years, people within the industry barely remember some of the biggest passenger ships of the world coming to India. But now with the government focusing on cruise tourism, the industry is growing. 

As per the data available with DNA Money from the Ministry of Shipping, between 2017-18 and 2019-20, there has been an over fourfold increase in the number of passenger liners making their presence in India.

During the cruise season of 2017-18, there were a total of 138 sailings to five Indian ports of Chennai, Cochin, Mumbai, New Mangalore and Mormugao. During the ongoing season of 2018-19, there are 285 sailings through Indian ports, which would increase to 580 sailings next season. In other words, during these three years there has been a 320% increase in sailings.

“On April 17, Karnika, the first Indian foreign ship started home porting from the Mumbai Port. With starting of Jalesh Cruises, cruise ships calling in Mumbai are expected to go up to 300 in 2019-20 as compared to 48 in 2017-18. Karnika has a capacity to accommodate 1,700 passengers and 750 crew. It will operate three voyages per week for the first season this year, making 17 calls in Mumbai with the last call on May 5, when she will reposition to Gulf ports during monsoon in India. She will make in all 100 calls in Mumbai in eight months of fair weather,” said Sanjay Bhatia, chairman, Mumbai Port Trust.

According to him, the new cruise terminal that will be operational from April 2020 will be the nucleus for further deployment of cruise ships in Mumbai.

After Costa and Jalesh, Royal Caribbean Cruises has shown interest in home porting their cruise ship next year. “The vision in the next five years is to handle 1,000 ships and a million passengers in India,” Bhatia said.

In 2017-18, a total of 1,76,778 passengers went on a voyage from the Indian shores. This number is expected to swell to 5,65,944 the next season. This is a 220% rise in passengers from India getting on board.

Jurgen Bailom, President & CEO, Jalesh Cruises, said that Indian ports are growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.8% and the cruise tourism market in India has potential to grow to over four million passengers in next 10 years.

Jalesh Cruises plans to expand its Indian presence by getting three more ships. “We are focused on expanding the market here in India to give passengers more opportunity to cruise across the vast and beautiful coastline in India as well as give them a home away from home experience abroad. Karnika is a start for us and we intend to purchase another ship to offer a differentiated product pretty soon in Indian waters. We are looking at about three ships in the next five years.”

In the nascent stage of cruise tourism itself, a new trend of hosting a wedding or a corporate conference while being on the waters has begun.

Nalini Gupta, head of Costa Cruises in India said that cruising is trending as a next wedding destination and young couples are looking for a unique and alternative way for tying the knot. “Looking at the growing trend, Costa Cruises is targeting the Indian weddings. Costa Cruises has conducted two lavish weddings onboard and they are also getting enquiries from Tier II to Tier III cities to host weddings on board,” Gupta said.

In fact MICE, or Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions, too have started flowing in. “The main reason for the growth in MICE numbers on a cruise is the ease of handling groups onboard a cruise vis a vis land, as cruise is an all-inclusive destination. Most of the MICE groups combine work and leisure activities on the ship. The ease of having everything at one place enhances not only the attendance in terms of the meetings onboard, but gives travellers the flexibility to do whatever they choose to do in the evening,” Gupta said.

For Costa, there has been positive growth in customer numbers ever since they started in 2012, but in the last three years they have averaged a 25% growth Year-on-Year.

On the other hand, Ratna Chadha, chief executive of Tirun Marketing (that handles marketing for US-based Royal Caribbean Cruises), is also considering home porting at Mumbai. On board Spectrum of the Seas, Chadha said that earlier when itinerary for this largest vessel was being chalked out she saw India not getting included and got the US-based company to include India on the sailing map. Hence, Spectrum of the Seas, among the most expensive ships in Asia, during its maiden sailing last week made its presence at Mumbai.