The Celebrity Solstice, a jumbo cruise ship measuring 317-meters in length and carrying 2,776-passengers and 1,168-crew members, has docked at Bali’s Benoa Harbor on the way from Sydney to Singapore, according to reporting from Antara News.
Speaking on the sidelines of the welcoming ceremony for the cruise ship, deputy for maritime sovereignty and energy coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Kemenkomarves), Jodi Mahardi, said “the arrival of this cruise ship is an important step to make Benoa Harbor an international cruise ship base.”
Foreign tourists exited through the Benoa Harbor’s international arrival after completing the immigration process digitally via a barcode-based application and then accompanied by travel agents, they visited a number of tourist destinations using tour buses and luxury vehicles, say Antara News.
Head of the Bali Provincial Tourism Office, Tjokorda Bagus Pemayun, said that foreign tourists bought tour packages, for Ubud, Kintamani, Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK), Taman Ayun, Kintamani, and several other destinations, adding that “we hope this will have a positive impact because their spending is high, especially since they are classified as rich tourists, so we hope this will have an extraordinary impact and tourism players must quickly seize this opportunity.”
Expenditure or spending by cruise ship tourists, he said, is estimated to exceed the expenditure of foreign tourists in general, which reaches USD 1,200-per visit, per person, per day.
Meanwhile, director of strategy at PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo), Prasetyo, said that his party provided a 46-meter-long special lane or gangway to support the disembarkation and embarkation of passengers.
“This is history for us serving the process of berthing ships measuring more than 300-meters long at Benoa Harbor. Our pier is also quite long, a total of 500-meters so that it is able to serve the berth of jumbo-sized cruise ships,” he added.
With a weight of 121,878 gross tonnage (GT), the Celebrity Solstice is the largest ship that has ever docked at Benoa Harbor.
In 2023, as many as 50-cruise ships are expected to register to dock at Benoa, with the number of passengers reaching 75,000, and in 2024, as many as 52-ships are expected to register, with the number of passengers estimated to reach 89,400, report Antara News.
Source: Antara News
Stock cruise ship image by Peter Hansen on Unsplash
