Second cruise vessel calls at NMP

Italian flag cruise vessel Costa Victoria arrived at the New Mangalore Port on Tuesday.

There were 1,928 passengers and 766 crew on board the cruise. She is the second vessel of the cruise season to call the port. The cruise season had commenced on November 4 with the arrival of Aida Vita.

A total of 24 cruise vessels had confirmed their visit to NMP during the season and a few more were in the pipeline. In previous fiscal, 26 cruise vessels had sailed into the port. In 2017, a total of 22 cruise vessels with 24,258 passengers had visited the port.

The local tour operators had arranged the visit of passengers to surrounding tourist spots.

Though heli-tourism services were introduced by the New Mangalore Port
Trust (NMPT) to ferry passengers of the cruise to the nearest tourist destination, the helicopter did not arrive to ferry the passengers, owing to poor weather condition.

As many as 12 passengers had booked helicopter services, said sources in NMPT.