Hambantota port says cruise calls on the up

Disembarked passengers of MV. Mein Schiff 5 ready for their e-bike ride to view scenaries in Hambantota 

• Welcomes over 6, 000 cruise tourists in Nov. and Dec.
• Hosts 22 cruise calls during this year

The Hambantota International port (HIP) welcomed over 6,000 tourists to Sri Lanka who arrived on five cruise liners, in the latter part of November and during December 2023.

The ‘Azamara Journey’ docked on the November 29 carrying 620 passengers. The Luxury cruise liner Mein Schiff 5 which arrived in Sri Lanka from Muscat on the 10th of December, called at HIP on the 11th, carrying 2200 passengers.

A group of disembarking passengers from the luxury liner got on e-bikes to go sightseeing in the Hambantota area, keeping with HIP’s green-port drive. 

This is the cruise ship’s second call for 2023, and its third call at the port, counting the visit in May last year.  Other cruise ships that called were the ‘Celebrity Millennium’ on the 5th and 16th of December carrying 3500 passengers and the ‘Nautica’ which arrived on the 19th bringing 498 visitors.

To-date this year, HIP has recorded approximately 22 cruise ship calls with most of them arriving from Chennai, via Cordelia Cruise Lines.  The shipping line, which offers holiday packages to Indian and international travellers, made a number of ship calls to HIP from June to September this year, on their cruise liner ‘Empress.’ Approximately 7500  tourists arrived at the port throughout the year.  

 The Nautica and the Celebrity Millennium are bound for Phuket Thailand as their next port of call while the ‘Azamara Journey’ is headed to Sabang, Indonesia.  The Mein Schiff 5 is on her onward journey to the Langkawi archipelago in Malaysia. 

The port’s initiatives to develop the cruise business as well as enhanced facilities to ships and passengers have paid off, resulting in the increase of ship calls HIP.