Mumbai Port Trust said in 2019-2020 cruise traffic involving the city will break all its record
The traffic of domestic and international cruise arriving and departing at Mumbai Port is set to break all records. According to Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT), they have got bookings for at least 300 tourist ships for the year 2019-2020 compared to around 15 bookings in 2018-19, and mere 40 bookings in 2015-16.
The MbPT said that in the coming year cruise traffic at Mumbai will break all its record by handling the highest tourist ships. A typical season for cruise ships to arrive is between October and May.
Sanjay Bhatia, Chairman of MbPT said, "In the year 2015-16, there were mere 40 cruise bookings that went up to around 150 bookings for 2018-19, and for the next year we already have at least 300 bookings, and the majority of them are domestic cruises."
Bhatia added, "Our consultants had also not anticipated such good response but now when we have it, we are assured that this is something worth investing in. By year-end, new international cruise terminal will be ready for use and space for domestic cruise terminal is also reserved, in case augmentation is required in future.
Along with this, the MbPT is also looking for an operator to run the domestic cruise terminal at Victoria Docks on public-private partnership (PPP). An operator will be appointed for a period of 10 years, who will have similar functions as operators of Mumbai Airport and Mumbai Metro.
Further, the MbPT's focus for a couple of years is to cater to cruise tourism. The Central government is also planning to give relief in terms of reducing or waiving of Goods & Service Tax (GST) for those opting to travel via cruise.
According to MbPT, about 120,000 Indian tourists travel to international destinations each year, especially to Singapore, to experience and enjoy cruise travel.
According to estimations of 2016, around 25 million cruise passengers were handled worldwide. It is expected that the worldwide cruise passenger growth is likely to be between 37-45 million over the next 20 years, having a growth rate of 2-3% per annum.
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