Paradip: In a major boost to the tourism industry, Monaco-based luxury cruise liner Silver Sea Cruises will dock at Paradip Port January 26, a report said.
The tourists aboard the ship will visit the ancient Buddhist heritage sites of Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri in Jajpur district.
The visit of a luxury cruise liner to Odisha comes after 15 years. A high-level meeting was held by the Tourism Secretary Vishal Kumar Dev Thursday. Dev and senior officials from the department assured all help to make the visit of the tourists a success.
The tour is being organised by an agency named Travel Link. The agency was instrumental in promoting Odisha among officials of the cruise liner.
“The Tourism and Forest Departments have assured all help,” Travel Link founder Benjamin Simon said.
During its 14-night Asian expedition, the 120-guest cruise ship will touch Chennai too. Its voyage in India will cover Visakhapatnam, the Sundarbans, Mahehkhali Island, St Martin Island (Bangladesh), Nagapali Beach, Rakhine, Mawlamyine and Hpa and Port Yazar of Yangon in Myanmar.
Since its launch in the early 1990s, Silver Sea Cruises has been recognised as the gold standard of luxury cruising, acclaimed both for its legendary European lifestyle and global destinations.
Today, Silver Sea Cruises operates a global portfolio of voyages to all the seven continents and over 900 destinations.
During its trip to Odisha, the liner was keen to include Gopalpur so that tourists could enjoy Asia’s largest brackish water Chilika Lake and see migratory birds, Irrawaddy dolphins and Olive Ridley turtles. The Gopalpur port, therefore, needs to come forward and welcome this new segment of business, Simon stressed.
In the early 1980s, a cruise vessel from the US had come to Odisha. It was followed by some other European cruise liners in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, more cruise liners could not be attracted due to projects for expanding the NHs and the resultant traffic congestion as that could have inconvenienced tourists, Simon said.
PNN
