Media Release
Mangaluru, Mar 3: MV Costa Victoria with 1771 passengers and 809 crew and MV Insignia with 612 passengers and 407 crew called at New Mangaluru Port here on Saturday March 3. These were the 19th and 20th cruise vessels calling at the port during the current financial year 2017-18. Both the vessels were berthed at the alongside berths of the Port - 2 to 4.
Costa Victoria - an Italian cruise vessel with passengers representing 35 nations of the world, in which a majority from France, Dutch and Germany came from Colombo - sailed out the same evening to Salalah.
MV Insignia - a Norwegian cruise liner with passengers from US and Canada came from Male and sailed out the same evening to Cochin.
Around 1,300 passengers from these two vessels opted for ground tour arranged by the local tour operators - M/s Globe Travels and M/s Lia Travels, and visited various locations in and around Mangaluru like Mangaladevi temple, Gokarnanatha temple, St Aloysius Chapel, cashew processing units, monolithic statue of Lord Bahubali at Karkala, Soans farm and thousand pillar Jain Basadi at Moodbidri, Belmont House at Balmatta, city shopping, etc.
After enjoying the scenic beauty of Mangaluru, the passengers returned to their respective vessels and sailed out to the next port. M/s J M Baxi & Co are the agents of both the vessels
Suresh P Shirwadkar, chairman, while recalling the steady growth of cruise vessels calling at the port has informed that during the current financial year 2017-18 (as on March 3, 2018), 20 cruise vessels called at the port with 20,400 passengers. The next vessel is scheduled to call at the port on March 6.
The captain and passengers of the vessel were highly impressed with the facilities available at the cruise lounge, neat and tidy berth area, concreted roads, security arrangements, immigration facility, greenery in and around the port, availability of local ground tour operators, proximity to tourist areas, etc. During the interaction the passengers expressed their satisfaction over their short stay in Mangaluru.