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Ease of doing business?: Cruise companies take one year just to set up office in India

Wading through red tape I Norwegian Cruise Line had decided to set up offices in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and India. The company has managed to open offices in all the countries except India.

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The cruise liner is launching India ops onboard Seven Seas Voyager
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Days after the central government announced setting up of a taskforce to facilitate and push cruise tourism in India, a top honcho of a major global cruise company hopes to see ease of doing business in India to improve in coming months.

Speaking with dna, Harry Sommer, executive VP (international business development) of Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd, said, "India has a booming middle class and tremendous opportunity for growth of cruise tourism in India. But at times due to bureaucratic hurdles, things move slowly, hindering the growth."

Last year NCLL had decided to set up offices in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and India.

"It has been a year and the office is already set up in all countries barring India, where it is still in the process," he said.

Sommer was interacting a day before the launch of Norwegian Cruise Line in India. The launch event will be held onboard the Seven Seas Voyager of Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which will be berthed at Port Ballard Pier and will be held on Tuesday.

In order to boost cruise shipping tourism along the vast coast including Mumbai, the central government had set up a taskforce, apart from planning several incentive schemes, to promote cruise tourism industry in India. The announcement was made during a maritime event held in Goregaon, in Mumbai, on April 15.

The taskforce is planned to help in giving all the required permissions for landing of travellers at a port in India in a quick manner, as it will have top officials from different government agencies as members.

"Since tourists visiting the city in cruise ships spend only about a day, it becomes even more important that least time is taken to take them out of the port to the land," said Valsa Nair, principal secretary (tourism and culture), Maharashtra government, had said earlier.

According to an estimate, about 90,000 tourists go on cruise trips from India every year, which is very low in number considering the burgeoning middle class in the country. In contrast, neighbouring China has about 700,000 tourists going on cruise lines every year.

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