A passenger cruise service at a fortnightly interval has been commenced via several ports in the Indian Ocean making Colombo the base port.

The new service has been implemented by the Indian Ocean Cruise Line of India using the cruise vessel Ocean Oddesy.

Luxury passenger vessels sailing around the world usually call Colombo Port, once or twice annually, but this is the first instance such a vessel calls Colombo fortnightly, a spokesman said.

In the past, Sri Lanka had single vessel calls by cruise liners operating a round the world or on Europe to Far East route.

Annually, the port of Colombo had about 35 such vessels call. However, other ports such as Singapore developed cruise operations with Singapore as the base port and vessels going out on cruises ranging from a few days for several weeks with Singapore Cruise terminal as the base port.

Such cruise operations became a huge boom to tourism in countries like Singapore where tourists flew to Singapore to join the vessel for cruising and also spent several days in the city hotels.

The commitment from Indian Ocean Cruise Lines to the Port of Colombo in particular is commendable, said a spokesman for Sathsindu Ltd, agents for Indian Ocean Cruise Lines.

“We would like to see the Sri Lanka Ports Authority improving the facilities for cruise operations, after recognising that ports can handle vessels other than container vessels, a spokesman for Indian Ocean Cruise Lines said.

The potential for cruising in the Indian sub continent is huge and passengers travel to the Far East and elsewhere to board Cruises and about 405 of the Far Eastern Cruise market originates here. Having Cruise operating in the region is an added segment which will also generate more arrivals to the region.

The vessel “Ocean Oddesy” is comparatively a small cruise vessel and have modern facilities for the 110 cabin for cruise passengers.

The vessel is equipped with swimming pools, health centre, casino, gymnasiums, bar and restaurant, library, games rooms among other facilities. The vessel operates to Goa, Mangalore, Suheli, Cochin, Colombo, Trivandrum and Cheriyam.