Cruise ship makes maiden call at Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port
Ada Derana: Cruise ship ‘Serenade of the Seas’ made her maiden call at the Hambantota International Port (HIP) on 29th April. The luxury liner, which carried 1,950 passengers and 890 crew members, was the 10th cruise ship to call at HIP for the year 2024.
The ‘Serenade of the Seas’ launched in 2003 is one of the global cruise shipping companies, Royal Caribbean International’s Radiance Class vessels built to travel to far flung exotic destinations.
The port welcomed the ship with a plaque presentation held on board. Officials of HIPG & HIPS along with representatives from the local vessel agents, Prudential Shipping, attended the event. The liner’s next call is the Colombo Port.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is on a steady growth path with local tourism authorities looking at further promotional campaigns as well as explore new tourism concepts to attract more foreign travelers to the country. One area that the tourism authorities are promoting is cruise tourism where foreign travelers visit the country via cruise ships for short stays. There have already been several large scale cruise liners that have called at Sri Lanka. With Sri Lanka being identified as a must visit tourist destinations and a travel destination that one should visit in their lifetimes, the tourism industry is witnessing a steady growth. All these have resulted in the expansion of business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, especially in the leisure and hospitality sectors. The development of infrastructure and supplementary infrastructure facilities required by the growing industry presents lucrative opportunities for foreign businesses/investors. The growing business potential in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry have resulted in many international leisure and hospitality brands to explore opportunities in the country. Given the steady growth in the tourism industry, foreign businesses/investors could explore the expanding opportunities while also looking at forming partnerships or joint ventures with local businesses with the aim of further expansion.