When documentary film-maker Ajai Lal saw an ad in the papers two years ago beckoning him to cruise in the Bahamas he could not resist. He and his wife spent $1,500 for a week-long voyage around the isles and came back starry-eyed. Now they plan to take another cruise this year, a more expensive and adventurous one in Alaska. This is going to cost them around $ 500 a day for seven days, but the 40-something couple thinks it is worth the spend. Like the Lals a number of well-heeled Indian travellers are looking to do something different on their annual sojourns abroad. How many times can you walk down Oxford street or gape at the Statue of Liberty? There is need for a new holiday product that can become the high point of the vacation and cruising is one such option. Until half a decade ago cruising was a luxury that even the rich only fantasised about, but today it is fantasy that can be realised because a number of cruise companies have appointed selling agents in India. So the next time you plan a trip to Europe, North America or even the Far East, your travel agent will be able to offer you besides an airline package, a cruise package too. And you can pay for it in rupees.

The Royal Caribbean Cruise Line is by far the most popular company selling out of the country for the last two and a half years. But the oldest and most romanticised cruise that docks into Indian shores every year is the QE2 or Queen Elizabeth 2. In addition you have Premier Cruise Lines, Star Cruises, based in Singapore, Marco Polo, Princess Cruises, P&O Cruises and Swan Hallenic Cruises. While some of them can only be bought here others touch the Indian coastline and pick up passengers.

The Royal Caribbean Cruise Line based in Miami operates in the Bahamas but last year sent a ship out to Asia with itineraries centering around Singapore, Phuket and Hongkong. The price for any of its cruises varies from $400 to $500 per night per person. The QE2 that has been docking in Bombay or Madras alternately picks up passengers for a week-long sail to either Mombasa in Africa or Singapore at a cost of Rs 75,000 per person at the minimum. Another popular cruise is Star Cruise that offers cheaper two-night packages at $200 in the waters around Singapore, and the main attraction here is gambling.

At the upper end you have the Oriana and Arcadia World cruises from the P&O camp which are being sold in India through their joint venture company P&O Travel India. Both these ships are scheduled to touch India early next year. A 17-day cruise, for example, aboard Oriana can vary between $7,646 to $18,399 per person. The Swan Hallenic cruise that has been docking into India but can't be bought here operates a ship called Minerva and targets the academic tourist who wishes to learn something while on holiday. So they organise guest lecture tours on board. The Minerva has already docked in at the Porbunder Coast to take its passengers for an excursion into Gujarat.

In the last year the number of cruises that have been sold out of India are to the tune of 5,000 passengers while this year the number should go up to 7,000. Says Gautam Chadha, chief executive, Discover the World Marketing, that are the representatives of Royal Caribbean and Premier Cruise Lines in India, ``Though I have already sold cruises to a couple of thousand passengers as of May 31 and hope to sell much more by the end of the year, we are still in the stage where we are selling the concept and not the brand. With every new product, it is first the entrepreneur traveller who tries it out, then the me-too traveller and finally the masses. Where the cruise market is concerned we are still in the first stage in India. Awareness has to be build up.''

Ashish Kumar, general manager, north, P&O Travel India, feels, ``that a cruise is still a fantasy product but it is becoming more accessible. Thanks to demographic changes, income and awareness levels have gone up with people wishing to graduate to a cruise holiday.''

In India the target group is the estimated one million super rich households that have an annual income of over Rs 10 lakh. About half a million Indians visit North America alone every year and spend on an average Rs 1 lakh per head, what will it then cost these travellers to spend a few hundred dollars more to take a cruise? Nothing. But information has to be made available to them, and cruise packages sold more proactively. And this can happen at the retailer level that is the travel agent. But the common complaint is that the agent is not interested in much beyond his commission from the sale of airline tickets. While larger agencies like Sita Travels have noticed that 30 per cent of their average outbound traveller envisages interest in a cruise package they still have to market it aggressively because they started retailing cruises only a couple of years ago. Travel House on the other hand is looking to get their own representation from a cruise company to begin active promotion, while most others have only brochures to offer their interested clients.

Chadha explains, ``India has always been a volume and not a value market. Mass promotions like advertising is expensive and the market is not yet mature for mediums like direct marketing. So the push will have to come at the point of sale that is the travel agent.''

India can be developed as a two-fold cruise market. One where cruises are bought by Indians and second as a cruise destination where ships dock in on our shores. For the latter certain infrastructure has to be in place. For example there are no cruise ports in India. The QE2 that is a 54,000 tonne ship cannot dock into Bombay port. It docks outside and passengers have to be ferried on shore. Then there is a need for a cruise port terminal just like an airport terminal where 2,000 odd passengers can check-in and out. Unless this happens India cannot be a destination of origin that is cruises can't start or end here, feel market analyst.

In order to sell cruises to the outbound traveller the concept of a cruise holiday has to be strengthened. Even in the most mature travel market like the US only one per cent have cruised. So the scope worldwide is estimated to be tremendous. Luxury liners are now being developed and marketed as a land resort, but on sea, with the additional benefit of taking you to multiple destinations. And this hotel on sea is always on the look out for new shores to anchor in.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.