Jan 2020

COVER STORY
and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River
Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government
of India.
In 2011, AMET Shipping Pvt Ltd of the AMET Group,
the Chennai based company, invested a swooping 100
crore in procuring a 35-year-old cruise vessel, the Arberia
from its Greek owner. This training-cum-cruise
vessel was renamed the AMET Majesty and became
the first cruise ship registered in Chennai with an Indian
flag. International cruise liners like Royal Caribbean,
Celebrity Cruises, MSC and Costa Cruises are
monitoring the growing number of Indians looking for
affordable cruise holidays and are docking at major
ports such as Mumbai, Goa and Kochi with new, India
-specific itineraries. The squall of India oriented trips,
carefully crafted to introduce more Indians to cruises,
“The ministry has also
recently resolved the issues
regarding Cabotage laws
and will look at the charter
of demands from industry
stakeholders to resolve them
at the earliest to promote
cruise tourism,” said Shri
Nitin Gadkari, Honorable
Minister of Road Transport
and Highways, Shipping
and Water Resources,
River Development and
Ganga Rejuvenation,
Government of India’’
are economical and shorter in duration, starting for as
little as Rs 26,800 onwards for three nights compared
to the ultra-luxurious liner that traverse the Mediterranean
and Aegean, and expect patrons to pay a hefty
amount beforehand. As expressed by the head of Costa
Cruises in India; MS Nalini Gupta, “Everybody is
testing the waters in India. We have our ships coming
in from December until March and we do our sailings
from Mumbai to Maldives. Over the last two years, the
people who have sailed with us are the middle class.
Cruising is now becoming affordable for the common
man of India. It is not the reserve of the rich and famous
and this was an eye opener for us also”.
There are 13 major ports and around 200 minor
ports in India. Amongst them, six major ports are being
developed as world-class cruise terminals. These
ports, are situated in states where tourism is a dominant
sector and hence proves to be a ready platform
for the development of cruise tourism. These ports are
Mumbai, Goa, Kochi, New Mangalore, Tuticorin and
Chennai. In four of them, terminals for cruise liners are
ready, but they require additional infrastructures.
The above listed ports have some basic features
to support cruise industry. The Cochin port has basic
berthing facilities available at the Samudrika Convention
Centre. Since, the foreign ships that call at the
port, are too large for the jetty to handle, they berth at
the Ernakulam Wharf, which does not have facilities
for cruise passengers. The
Cochin Port Trust had submitted a proposal to the
Ministry of Tourism for the creation of a new terminal.
Estimated to be completed by 2020, the terminal
would have state-of-the-art facilities, making Kochi a
preferred destination for cruise tourism. Kochi is also
the first port in India along with Mumbai port to set up
an online immigration clearance facility. The port attracted
39 cruise liners in 2016 and is expected to cater
to 45 cruises in 2017.
The central government has launched several initiatives
to boost India’s cruise tourism industry. These
are the following:
(i) The Ministry of Shipping has further requested
the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council to continue
to exempt Cruise Tourism from the ambit of GST.
(ii) E-visa facilities have been extended to five major
ports, following the model of Cochin and Mumbai Port.
(iii) A 30 per cent rebate is being offered on vessel
related charges by all major ports to cruise ships.
(iv) Cruise vessels are exempted from any priority,
ousting, or shifting charges at all major ports, provided
the vessel informs the port 30 days in advance.
(v) Major ports provide 25 per cent rebate in vessel
January 2020 | Littoral Wind | 14