-By Raquib Siddiqi
Bangladesh tourism is now at the threshold of a new era. The country is poised to enter global ocean cruise map, ushering the new era in tourism industry.
The opportunity for exposing Bangladesh, to sea cruising will come, from a planned operation of international cruise company—Silver Sea Cruise– and include Bangladesh in its existing itinerary. Local tour operator Journey Plus is working with different concerned government departments and agencies to make the plan happen.
If every thing goes as planned, for the year 2017, Bangladesh will be visited by two cruise trips of Silver Sea Cruise Line. The inaugural visit of the cruise ship –Silver Discoverer– is scheduled to arrive Bangladesh on February 22 and the second one, which can be termed as return one on March 01.
The voyage is titled Colombo to Kolkata Asia Expedition Cruise, and will start from Colombo in Sri Lanka on February 11 and end in Kolkata. After 16 days.
After spending nine days in Colombo, Galle, Kirinda and Trincomalee in Sri Lanka and Andaman Islands in India, the Silver Discoverer will enter Bangladesh water through the Bay of Bengal and arrive Maheshkhali Island in Cox’s Bazar on the 12th day of the trip, on February 22.
Rural Bangladesh and local community will be the main tourist attractions at Maheshkhali part of the visit.
Staying overnight at Maheshkhali, the Silver Discoverer will move to the Subderbans and stop at Hiron Point and Kokilmoni. After overnight stay, the cruise will move to Charaputia and Harbaria.
After cruising and sightseeing inside the Sundarbans with the help of local guides and forest Rangers, on the 15th day of the trip, the Silver Discoverer will leave Bangladesh territory for Kolkata.
The second cruise trip to Bangladesh will touch the same spots from opposite direction. On the first of March, the Silver Discover will arrive Harbaria in the Sunderbans from Kolkata and later move to Kokilmoni and Hiron Point. On March 3, the cruise will move to Maheshkhali. From Maheshkhali the Silver Discoverer will depart Bangladesh for Phuket in Thailand via Yangon in Myanmar.
Arrangements have been made to extend immigration and customs services on board at the port of entry. Immigration and customs from Cox’s Bazar and Mongla will be responsible for the job.
It may be recalled that the ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism held an inter-ministerial meeting involving the foreign, home, forest and shipping ministries as well as with officials of customs, immigration and coast guard in May last year, to facilitate operation of ocean cruise liners.
Another meeting of the concerned departments and agencies of the government as well as stakeholders was held this year (2017) on January 05. Taufiq Rahman, CEO of Journey Plus, the tour operator that is taking all the initiative to include Bangladesh on the Cruise map, told me that the meeting decided to arrange boarder formalities onboard, to facilitate operation of cruise in the country.
Taufiq said there vwould be 95 tourists on board the first trip and 66 on the second. The number of the member of the crew will be more than the double of the number of tourists. Most of the tourists are from the USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand
It may be mentioned that a team from the cruise liner visited Bangladesh earlier on a scouting mission about the proposed operation. The job of the mission was to determine port of entry, sightseeing and security matters.
Global Cruise tourism
Since first departing the port of Southampton in 1822 and setting out onto English waterways, leisure cruise travel has grown to stretch across the globe. Initially growing out of necessity as a primary form of passage, the world’s first cruise line company, P&O Cruises, began to advertise Mediterranean Sea tours in 1844. Transatlantic crossings becoming more competitive, luxury was injected into the cruising experience, the Titanic becoming the pinnacle of its time for opulent ocean liner travel. Industry growth in routes and technology, maximizing the waterways and liners throughout the year, stretched cruise travel further out across the oceans, and into more southern waters. Waters were calm, growth was consistent.
Then came the advent of the jet aircraft and commercial air travel (celebrating 100 years in 2014), causing a reshaping of the cruise line sector, shifting the gears of the industry from passage to touring.
Over a century on, having weathered a stormy period of near-all withdrawal from the waters in the 1960s to 1980s due to weak demand, spurred on by development of offerings by the cruise liners, and a few powerful and memory-embedding big and small screen productions (is it possible to reference “The Love Boat” without the theme song starting to play in one’s head?), cruise travel has returned to the waters to become a growing source of traveler adventure, affection and anticipation.
The start
Global cruise tourism started as a destination for elite, exotic, even opulent adventurers. It maintains an image of grandness of pleasure and place. It has become a favorite destination for millions of travellers. It has become one of the fastest growing destinations of global travel and tourism.
It is making it possible for travellers to have all of their wishes fulfilled. It offers more choices for more travellers at once than most likely any other destination. It is a destination that, uniquely, is making special efforts to take the hassle out of international travel experiences.
For over 20 million travelers in 2013, it was the perfect travel destination. Yet, it is not actually a destination at all. Not in the classical ‘place on a map’ sense. Instead it is a place that moves from place to place, taking with it travellers making it a second home, for a short while.
And it is set to be charting the way for tourists, and tourism, for the next decade.
Exceptional success
Taking the advantage of strong tailwinds, today, global cruise travel represents one of the fastest growing sub-segments within the greater travel and tourism industry. Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA ), which represents over sixty member lines, has 2014 projections reaching an estimated 21.7 million guests worldwide across its membership base. Continued growth of the segment has made it necessary to bring an additional 24 new ships onto the seas in the 2014-2015 period, which equates to capex of an estimated $8 billion in ocean and river cruise categories.
“The “globalization” of the industry continues to be the main thrust of anticipated growth. Lines are developing products, itineraries and deployment patterns that are really taking the mainstay North American cruise passenger farther and to new locales as well as marketing to consumers around the world. Over the last couple of years, the new focus has been the development of the Asia Pacific region, with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Carnival Corporation making important inroads into this marketplace with several of their brands.
The leading cruise destination in terms of ship deployments remains the Caribbean, accounting for 37.3 per cent of all global itineraries followed by the Mediterranean (18.9 per cent), Northern Europe (11.1 per cent), Australia/New Zealand (5.9 per cent), Alaska (4.5 per cent), Asia (4.4 per cent) and South America 3.3 per cent). In 2014, markets experiencing increased ship deployments include the Caribbean (+12 per cent), Northern Europe (+5.2 per cent), Asia (+31.6 per cent) and Australasia at +22 per cent.”
Why the strong growth?
Several reasons, ranging from ease of travel –‘just unpack once’ regardless of number of countries/stops on the itinerary–, all-inclusivity of offers (eliminating surprises, though this is a point of debate regarding real economic impact to destinations visited), and overall product appeal (literally seeing the world from a new perspective).
Terry Dale, President of the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA) and former President of CLIA also points out that, in terms of growing interest in cruising:
“There are some interesting trends in the cruise industry, the growth of river cruising and increased multi-generational family travel. In our annual member survey conducted in December, three quarters of respondents same river cruises as among the top emerging experiential travel trends. It’s no wonder as river cruising has seen almost explosive growth of 10 percent over the past five years, and noted as a top luxury travel trend by Forbes.
Cruise tourism acts as another valuable travel proposition bringing the people of the world closer together through connection of wishes and waterways.
Bangladesh is the only country in the region, which this far remained out of cruise map.
So, impending cruise seems to be very important for the future of cruise tourism in Bangladesh.
If Bangladesh can extend quality and efficient immigration, customs and other services, to the tourist onboard, that will be good for the expansion of the industry. Efficient handling of the whole operation will encourage Silver Cruise Line to expand its operation and others to include Bangladesh in their itinerary.
First published in Bangladesh Monitor. (The writer is a former editor of the now defunct The Bangladesh times and specialises in travel and tourism writing.)
