A cruise vessel with 388 passengers on board called at the New Mangalore port on Tuesday.
Mr P. Tamilvanan, Chairman of the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT), told Business Line that the passenger vessel ¨C m.v. Deutschland ¨C with 388 passengers and 276 crew members berthed at Berth no. 4 at the New Mangalore port on Tuesday.
With this, the total number of passenger vessels called at the port stood at 14 during the current financial year.
Passengers, most of whom are senior citizens, are from the US, Austria, Germany, Europe, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Passengers went on a trip of Moodbidri town and Mangalore city after getting down at New Mangalore.
The last port of call of the vessel was Kochi and the next port of call will be Goa.
The port handled 18 passenger vessels during the financial year 2006-07 as against three vessels in 2005-06.
To give a boost to the cruise traffic in the region, the NMPT is constructing a cruise lounge at the port.
The draft tourism policy of Karnataka for 2007-12 has identified cruise tourism as one of the thrust areas for development.
The policy says that Mangalore will be developed into a major cruise tourism hub through development of an international standard dedicated cruise terminal.
The terminal will be connected to a cluster of destinations with in 25 km radius, the policy adds.
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