Holidays at sea return as international cruise liners begin to arrive at Indian ports

Defying the challenges posed by the pandemic, luxury passenger ships are back on the waters. As the cruise liner season kicks off in India, we look at how the industry is innovating to stay on an even keel

A celebratory beating of drums welcomed Viking Mars at Mumbai Port in November 2022. The Norwegian vessel was the first to restart India’s cruise line tourism season (November-May), paused by the pandemic since March 2020. The luxury passenger ship was followed by several others. In the New Year, the French vessel Le Champlain was the first to arrive in Indian ports — Mumbai, Goa and Kochi — on its way to Galle and Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. The season also saw the arrival of Amera with the Bahamas flag at Thoothukudi, in Tamil Nadu, on January 11, after a gap of six years. Chennai opened its season with Le Champlain on January 10.

One will recall that in February 2020, when those aboard the British-registered luxury cruise ship Diamond Princess were struck with COVID-19, commentators called it a “floating petri dish,” and predicted the end of holidays at sea. The return of the cruise liners has brought optimism to an industry that was battered by a prolonged shutdown. The first efforts to restart were initiated at the first International Cruise Conference of India, organised by the Mumbai Port Authorities, in May 2022 and attended by various stakeholders including cruise lines like Royal Caribbean, Holland America, MSC Cruises S.A., to name a few.

Starting small

Though the revival is slow and has begun only with small and mid-size vessels (capacity of 200 and 400 people), it has sent waves of relief across the industry. “The return of international cruise ships to India brings new opportunities in the shipping and tourism sector. There’s an increase in the number of calls scheduled to India as compared to earlier years,” says Nevil Malao, VP Cruise and Navy Cell of Shipping agency, JM Baxi & Co, adding that they are handling over 50 ships this season till May 2023. “We can consider this to be positive growth in cruise tourism in spite of the ongoing COVID-19 scare across various countries,” he says.

Nevil speaks of doing approximately 20 calls (a classic port call is 12 hours) at Mumbai, Goa, Kochi and Agatti in Lakshwadeep Islands, with domestic cruise line Cordelia this season. “Cruising is now more affordable after the arrival of Cordelia Cruise in India since September 2021. It is no longer considered elitist and is affordable across a wider spectrum of society,” he says.

Currently, Cordelia cruises offer 3-to-5-day sailings to Mumbai, Goa, Kochi and Agatti and are scheduled to launch Chennai–Sri Lanka to their itinerary from June to September. The cruise line that began operations in 2021 has so far “delightfully delivered to over 200k customers.” “We host large functions for milestone birthdays, anniversaries, wedding parties and corporate events and offer flexibility to choose from various itineraries as well as categories,” says Jurgen Bailom, President and CEO, Waterways Leisure Tourism whose MV Empress is now a familiar name in Indian ports.

“We are in no way back to pre-COVID-19 levels but a revival has begun,” says Michael Haidar Ali of Micato Safaris, a New Delhi based luxury (shore excursion agent) inbound operator who also deals with cruise holidays.