Cruise terminals at four ports under PPP model

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New Delhi, Sep 4 : In order to boost tourism in the country, the Centre has planned to set up dedicated cruise terminals in four ports under public private partnership (PPP) model.

“As part of cruise shipping policy adopted by the government in June this year the shipping ministry has planned to set up cruise terminals at Chennai, Mumbai, Goa and Kochi ports in the first phase,” shipping secretary APVN Sarma said, while addressing at a cruise tourism conference here on Thursday.

Highlighting the role of ports, Sarma said, “For enabling ports to optimise their yields, the government proposes to give incentives to ports so that they could strike a balance between high revenue generating cargo ships and cruise ships.”

The government is engaged in ironing out certain issues like taxes on bunkers and speeding up immigration procedures to give a boost to cruise tourism, he said. Addressing the conference, tourism secretary Shilabhadra said the government has set a target of 10 million foreign tourists arrivals (FTA) by 2010 as against 5.08 million in 2007.

“Keeping in mind the very positive tourism trends in mind and sector’s potential for additional employment and revenue generation we have adopted this ambitious target to generate additional $9 million as forex. This exercise will create about 15 additional jobs,” she said.

As per the projections of World Travel and Tourism Council for 2008, the contribution of tourism to world GDP and employment were at 9.9% and 8.4% respectively.

While tourism arrivals grew at 14.3%, foreign exchange receipts from tourism increased by 24.3% in 2007. He underlined the high potential of cruise tourism in the country, which is borne out by the fact that India recorded a 310% increase in cruise tourism visitors between 2002-06.

India’s cruise tourism potential is based on exotic and historic destinations, extensive coast lines, strong port positioning and expanding domestic tourism sector.