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Sri Lanka to get its first luxury cruise line
Sri Lanka is to get its first luxury cruise line after Royal Asian Cruises announced plans to home port two ships in the country.
Royal Asian Cruises, which has offices in the US and in India, plans to initially invest around $200 million over the next few years.
RAC will homeport a 800-passenger ship in late 2015 from the Port of Colombo and hopes to take delivery of a second larger ship the following year.
It plans year-round cruising from Colombo on short voyages around Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean calling at ports such as Maldives and Cochin, along with longer 10- and 11-night round-trip sailings to Singapore.
"As a Sri Lankan, I am really proud to be back in my homeland, and investing in a large-scale project of this nature," said RAC chairman Mano Sinnarajah.
"This venture will have many direct and indirect benefits on the Sri Lankan economy," he added.
Sinnarajah said the company has a five-year plan laid out to expand to a fleet of five ships at a cost of $720 million.
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