There was news previously that the tourism authorities want to develop cruise tourism in Visakhapatnam. A four-member consultant team from Delhi and an expert from Netherlands – Hendrik Antoon Van Dijk – reportedly visited the Visakhapatnam Port Trust for the same.
The Deputy Chairman of VPT, PL Haranadh, stated that a team with experts have come in for a preliminary market survey. They’re here to find out about the popular circuits, potential infrastructure gap, number of vessels required for coastal transportation as well as cruises through various circuits.
The team will submit their reports within two and half months and after that, a tender will be called to fill in the infrastructural gap, operational requirements and identify circuits where cruise tourism will take off. As of now, Vizag is believed to have a lot of potential for developing cruise tourism.
Some of the circuits where it can be developed are – Vizag to Chilka in Odisha, Andamans, Amaravati in Vijayawada, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Sundarbans in West Bengal and more. There is talk of connecting all these routes through cruise tourism based on their popularity. The funding for the project will be majorly from the central ministry of tourism, while the state government might also pitch in.
