Italian line Costa Cruises could deploy a ship exclusively for the Indian market.
Nalini Gupta, managing director of Costa’s local representative Lotus Destinations, says the market has huge potential and the line recognises it.
"All the possibilities exist for Costa Cruises to launch a exclusively for the Indian market. It all depends how the market matures and Costa will be happy to look at that option, Gupta said, as Costa Luminosa and Costa Venezia docked simultaneously at Cochin Port.
Costa Luminosa is in the middle of a 109 nights world cruise while Costa Venezia is taking guests, including about 100 Indians, to Singapore via Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
Gupta says the India market represents only a fraction of the global market with about 165,000 cruisers.
Nearly all embark on fly-cruises due to the lack of options from Indian ports but it is still one of the fastest growing cruise markets.
According to Gupta the market is quite segmented with wealthy Indians taking Alaska or South American cruises, while upper middle class families mostly take cruises from Dubai or Singapore.
