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During the Covid-19 pandemic, the global cruise industry took a big rap. The Indian cruising industry also took a toll, but home-grown domestic cruise player Cordelia Cruises saw a huge opportunity during the distress to cater Indian travellers, who loves going on a vacation. To provide a wholesome cruise-holiday experience to guests without compromising on their health and safety, Cordelia Cruises started its journey on the Indian shores and started sailing across the country from September 2021.
Since then, the journey has been really good. The premium cruise liner has welcomed over three lakh guests on board since its first sail. After two successful years of operating domestic cruises across India, premium cruise liner Cordelia Cruises is all set to begin sailing to Sri Lanka, its first international sailing outside Indian shores.
Sharing the highlights of the journey since inception and future plans going forward, Jurgen Bailom, President and CEO said that India will become one of the biggest markets for cruising globally in next 5 to 10 years.
In the past 12 months, Cordelia Cruises has flourishingly completed 100+ sailings along both the east and the west coast of India, has covered 7 ports in total including Kochi, Goa, Mumbai, Lakshadweep, Visakhapatnam, and Chennai, and has done more than 300 shows while serving 100,000 plus guests on The Empress by Cordelia Cruises.
In the leisure industry, ‘Cruise Tourism’ is one of the fastest growing and vibrant components worldwide and given India’s beautiful and vast coastline with undisturbed idyllic islands and a great cultural heritage, Bailom feels that there is tremendous potential for India to become a major cruise destination.
“I think we were able to have a good significant impact in the country of driving tourism forward, because I think a lot of other tourism sectors also got influenced by the positive thing we are driving and give some hope to get back on our feet. During the pandemic when there was no outbound travel, the cruise business and domestic tourism businesses thrived a lot. I feel proud that we were able to contribute to the growth of tourism in the country during Covid-19 pandemic.
As NCL’s President, Herrera will be responsible for the overall strategic vision and business plan execution for the Brand, as well as expand his reporting line to now include revenue management, guest services, brand finance, international sales, and the recently formed Experiences at Sea division which provides one of a kind, immersive events at sea for a range of passionate affinity communities.
Journey so far
Bailom during an interaction with ET TravelWorld said that the journey for Cordelia Cruises in the Indian travel and tourism industry has been very good so far. “We have welcomed more than three lakh guests on our ship so far and the number is increasing. I think, Indian travellers absolutely love cruising. We are working very hard to expand our company and start cruising to many new destinations, both domestic and international in the future,” he added. Cordelia Cruises has its base port in Mumbai and another home port in Chennai to manage its operations. The company operates sailings throughout the year from the Mumbai port. The cruise liner will soon start cruising to Sri Lanka from June 2023 all the way till September 2023 with itineraries ranging from three, four-, and five-nightsve nights trip.
Future ahead
According to Bailom, India has a huge potential to become the next big cruising hub. “I foresee India becoming one of the biggest cruises happening globally over the next five to 10 years. All the big companies are looking what we’re doing. With such a vast coastline, India has a huge potential to become the next big cruising hub. Also, the interest of Indian cruisers is still very, very small. Yes, we doubled the market. But only about 500,000 are Indians going on a cruise for five years. It’s not even the tip of the iceberg, so the potential is huge,” he added.
At the same time, Bailom mentioned that the country needs more cruising infrastructure to excel further. “Work has to be done on destination since there are not too many functional ports. As a company, we are also working very hard to bring more vessels to the Indian shores. But it’s not just about bringing a vessel, there’s so many more factors involved. Infrastructure is a big one, policy is another factor to keep in mind, but I think we’re doing a good job on that front. The Indian government supports cruising. More important factor is infrastructure, which the government is working hard to improve. They are showing a keen interest but it will take a little bit of time and so you can’t be overreacting. There are plenty of ships to buy to bring them to India, but we also need to make sure that the counter grows at the same speed,” he concluded.
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