Preparing for winter sails

By Cheranka Mendis
Come winter this year, Sri Lanka will be ready to welcome 4000 up-market tourists from Austria, Germany and Switzerland with the first ever regular cruise liner sailing in to the Colombo Port.

The cruise liner, FTI Berlin will make its maiden voyage to this part of the world in December starting off in Dubai and calling at Muscat, Mumbai, Goa and Kochi before docking at Colombo. The 206 cabin flagship cruise liner of the FTI Group, one of Germany’s leading tour operators will call at and depart Colombo 10 times between December 2012 and March 2013. FTI Berlin is scheduled to first arrive in Colombo on 5 December at 5p.m. An approximate 400 passengers on each cruise will disembark in Colombo while another 400 will start their cruise back to Dubai on the same route.
The liner is brought down under a partnership with Diethelm Travel Sri Lanka, a subsidiary of the Hemas Group. Diethelm Travel Sri Lanka Chairman Abbas Esufally stated that the cruise liner will sail to Colombo next winter season as wellw, depending on the success of its first season. Esufally added that the company is looking at the sea ports of Galle, Hambantota and Trincomalee to call at in the future.
“This will trigger interest of their competitors on Sri Lanka and will also create more attention on other sea ports which will be important for the growth of the local economy.” He noted that this will not only boost the industry, but will act as a viable spring board to showcase Sri Lanka as a multi-faceted and internationally attractive destination.
“Given the profile of many high end clienteles, a project of this magnitude is a vital shot in the arm of our tourists industry. The dividends of the project will augur well for the local tourist industry.” He expressed that opening the sea port for regular cruise business as such will help the country reach the tall goal of 2.5 million tourists by 2015.
FTI Touristik Director Operations Germany Lal Wijesinghe stated that the FTI Berlin has played the leading part in a popular German TV series ‘Das Traumschiff’ (‘the ship of dreams’). The 40 meter cruise can accommodates 400 passengers and provides two restaurants, a bar, lounge and beer garden, outdoor pool and indoor pool, spa, fitness centre, sauna, solarium and massages.  
“Marketing for the cruise line started right after ITB Berlin and has received good response for its first voyage to set sail in the summer. We have reservations that cover 80% of the occupancy after only six months of marketing. We are confident that the demand will be the same for the Asian voyage.” The ship will be docked in Sri Lanka for six hours.
Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Head of Standards, Quality Assurance, Investments, Legal and Special Projects Dileep Mudadeniya noted that opening the ports for more of such cruise liners will add a new segment for the overall tourism product and strengthen the positioning of the destination.  “In 2011, 24 million passengers have sailed back and forth on cruise liners generating over US$ 30 billion in revenue. Even though this is relatively new to us, promoting this would promote the country as a multi destination and benefit the regional tourism industry as well.”