Mangalore, November 26: Two luxury cruise vessels - M V Aida Diva with 1810 cruise passengers and 617 crew and M V Clipper Odyssey with 60 passengers and 70 crew - called at New Mangalore Port on Saturday, which marked the beginning of the cruise season.
M V Aida Diva one of the biggest luxury cruise vessels is on her third voyage to the Port. Out of 1810 passengers from Germany, around 1439 passengers opted for ground tour and enjoyed the scenic beauty and cultural heritage of Dakshina Kannada district like 1000 Pillar Jain temple, monolithic statue of Gomateshwara, Soans Farm, St. Aloysius chapel, Kadri temple, Gokarnanatha temple, cashew factory, city shopping etc.
These tourists were taken around by the local ground tour operators, M/s Globe Travels. M V Clipper Odyssey is also in her third voyage to the Port and 60 tourists were taken around by M/s Lia Travels. M/s J.M. Baxi & Co. are the agents of Aida Diva and M/s PLI the agents of Clipper Odyssey.
The tour operators M/s Royal Caribbean International, one of the leading cruise operators of the World, has visited the Port twice during last year and had discussion with the Port Chairman and visited the port area and were very much impressed upon the world class facilities available at the Cruise Lounge, neat and tidy berth area, concretised roads, security arrangements, emigration facility, greenery in and around the port, availability of local ground tour operators, proximity to tourist areas, etc.
The above Liner has already prepared their plan for bringing nine more cruise vessels during the current financial year. Dr. P. Tamilvanan, Chairman has stated that the captain of the vessel M.V. Aida Diva has expressed very much happiness over the facilities available at NMPT especially the neatness and greenery in and around the Port and the , excellent security arrangement and the world class cruise lounge.
The next call will be on December 3, 2012 wherein two big cruise vessels are expected to call, stated a press release.
Comments
Add new comment