NEW CRUISE TERMINAL ON COURSE AT #MOMBASA PORT
(Posted 23rd November 2017)
When Kenya’s new cruise terminal is ready by mid 2018 – latest reports from Mombasa speak of construction being on course to accomplish this – will the country finally be able to offer facilities for cruise passengers similar to those across the Indian Ocean islands like Seychelles, Reunion and even Mauritius.
It was learned that the buildings are completed and it is the interior outfitting which remains to be done over the next seven months.
Tying port calls in Mombasa into the itineraries of the major cruise line companies visiting the Vanilla Islands has for long been the desire of Kenya’s tourism marketeers, as one ship can easily disembark a thousand or more passengers at a go. Most of those take advantage of day excursions and many even of overnight safaris into the national parks, revenues Kenya’s tourism industry seeks to tap into besides the cash spent on direct expenses like curio purchases before the passengers re-embark and sail off.
Reunion for instance during the current cruise season expects fifty cruise ships to dock at the port of capital St. Denis while the Seychelles also reports cruise bookings at the port to be up to 36 ships, also almost twice as many compared to a year ago.
Kenya’s Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala, who hails from the Kenya coast, had last year already made a strong point to fast track the building of the new cruise terminal at the port of Mombasa’s berth number 1.
The Vanilla Islands organization together with the respective tourism boards of the main Indian Ocean islands has been attending cruise fairs and engaged with the world’s leading cruise companies to up the number of cruises among the islands and when Kenya’s new facility is ready no doubts all doors will be open to include mainland port calls enroute.
https://atcnews.org/2017/10/29/reunion-tourism-looking-at-record-cruise-ship-season-ahead/
