According to Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin J Gadkari, the government will construct cruise terminals at five ports — Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore, Kochi and Chennai.
Quoting from a project report prepared by consultants Bermelo & Ajamil and Ernst & Young, Gadkari said, “India’s cruise tourism would bring 4 million international tourists to India against just 200,000 today.”
As per the report, once the infrastructure is in place, 955 cruise liners will visit India every year compared to just 158 now, the passengers per ship will jump from 1,250 to 4,200 and would be able to generate Rs 35,500 crore of revenue against just Rs 712 crore (Rs 7.12 billion) today.
80 per cent of the cruise liners will dock in Mumbai and this will immensely benefit the financial capital of the country, Gadkari added. Talking about making Mumbai a cruise hub, he said, “In the next 15 days we will begin construction of a Rs 3 billion cruise terminal in Mumbai with the provision to make three cruise liners dock at the same time in future. The Mumbai cruise terminal will be completed in two years.”
“According to this report any international tourist visiting Mumbai via these cruise liners will have the potential to spend at least $100 and if 40 lakh tourists, each, were to spend this amount on an average in Mumbai, then just imagine the revenue potential of this project,” he opined.
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