Goa is no longer an attractive haul for cruise liners as guest ratings dip on India
The bad newsfirst. Come cruise season October to March, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd cruiseliner, ‘Brilliance of the Seas’ will no longer dock on Goan shores. Speaking atthe recently concluded three-day workshop on cruise tourism, Gautam Chadha,representative of the Royal Caribbean Cruise liner said, “We will be skippingIndia entirely as a holiday destination as it does not make business sense.”
The Royal Caribbean, which has the largest fleet of liners and offers cruisepackages across the world, had found its ratings amongst guests dipping whenthey began docking in India. Cruise tourism is known to cater to a niche marketand India has been unable to tap into the growing sector, despite the hugepotential. Chadha said, “Huge documentation on landing, poor bunker quality andpoor experience, has led to the company taking this decision.” For India thisis a distress signal as they have been talking about en-cashing the cruisetourism bandwagon for a long time.
But there’spotential. P Mara Pandiyan, chairman Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) said, “Despiteglobal recession the estimated growth rate of the cruise industry is aboutseven per cent. There is a great opportunity for India in the cruise sector.”“Strategically located in South East Asia, will allow India to become the firstpoint of voyage that includes circuits Singapore-Bangkok-Colombo-Dubai,” saidPandiyan.
However hedid agree that there was a need to streamline customs and immigration at portsand rationalize port charges.
Industrycaptains present also raised the need to create standard operating proceduresand changes in the laws that have not been visited since the time they havebeen created. All they ask of the government and its officials is to cooperatewith them and eliminate the element of surprise at each port.
