As part of its 75th anniversary celebrations, Costa Cruises will home port the Costa Serena out of Mumbai beginning on November 4 and expand its network of stops to include Lakshadweep. The ship will depart from Mumbai and travel to Goa, Lakshadweep, and the open sea.

This announcement was made today in Mumbai by senior officials including Sarbandana Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Roberto Alberti, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Costa Cruises, Francesco Raffa, Director Asia Region & Growth Markets of Costa Cruises, Alessandro De Masi, Consul General of Italy in Mumbai, Nalini Gupta, Lotus Aero Enterprises, GSA of Costa Cruises, and others.

According to Sonowal, India has successfully inaugurated the longest river cruise in the world, which departs from Benaras and travels down 27 different riverfronts before arriving in Dibrugarh, Assam, via Bangladesh. 32 Swiss nationals arrived on this flight from India at 50 airports. Many European tourists are showing interest in the second season. This demonstrates the variety of opportunities for coastal, ocean, and river sailing that exist in India. With Costa departing from Mumbai, the bilateral ties between Italy and India will only get stronger. The infrastructure we already have in place is cutting-edge, technologically sophisticated, and has an easy immigration process. To make travelling by ship even easier, we are still working to improve the required approvals.

Assuring full backing from the Indian government, “We are providing full support to cruise liners to home port their ships at Indian ports,” Sonowal added. We are prepared to support additional port infrastructure expansion to handle large cruise ships. We may be proud that Costa is returning to offer domestic cruise choices to Indian tourists as the Mumbai Port celebrates 150 years.

He asked Costa Cruises to look into year-round sailings from India, depending on the weather, and look for potential along India’s eastern coast.

Source: travelbizmonitor