Mangalore: A new Cruise season dawned at New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) and the first vessel of the season “AIDA VITA”, a Panama Flag vessel sailed into the port in the early hours on 04 November 2019 with 1154 passengers and 407 crew members on board.
The port authorities and the agents welcomed the passengers to the city of Mangalore.
This year, NMPT has improved the existing facilities and augmented services.
However, the attraction was the introduction of Helicopter services from the Port to nearby tourist destinations in Tulunadu and neighbouring State of Kerala. The First helicopter in the country that offered its services to passengers to the Bekal Fort in North Kerala. The future destinations proposed are Dharmasthala, Kukke, Belur and Halebeedu. This service is bound to find favour with the foreign tourists, who can pack a larger itinerary into their stay at Mangalore by availing the helicopter services.
The improved services include the re-furbished cruise terminal with additional facilities such as Free Wi-Fi, improved shopping arcade and information kiosk. The prospects look bright for the cruise experience which NMPT will offer this year.
As the Chairman of NMPT Venkatraman Akkaraju, said the main preference is given for tourismand it can carry 1300 passengers and for the next cruise that will be arriving on 12th of November where the 16 passengers have already pre- booked, and further he said the passengers are charged at a low margin fees and the revenue they get is around 20-25 Lakhs per annum this year 24 cruises have been booked and the total revenue reaches to 5 Crore P.A. Currently the cruise has arrived from Goa which Started off from Dubai on 28th of October and next it will be proceeding to Maldives, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the last stop will be Singapore by 23rd of November.
Mangalore city auto rounds are available to the guests in Cruise. The auto drivers are also excited by foreign passengers on board. Around 100 auto were hired by the out service tour operators.