Over 600 Tourists Arrive In Mombasa Aboard Mv World Odyssey Cruise Ship

BREAKING NEWS

Over 600 Tourists Arrive In Mombasa Aboard Mv World Odyssey Cruise Ship ^Featured

Ommy Dallah

People

26 January 2023

The Kenya tourism sector got a major boost after a cruise vessel carrying 895 tourists docked at the port of Mombasa.

The vessel christened MV World Odyssey arrived from Mumbai India and will stay at the Kenyan coast for six days as the tourists embark on a safari for the period they will be in the country before leaving for Jordan.

The vessel arrived at the Berth No 1 at around 9:30 am on Thursday and was received by tourism Principal secretary John Ololtua and Kenya tourism board (KTB) executive director John Chirchir.

The number include 620 passengers and 175 crew onboard, with majority of them being students. During their stay the students will have an opportunity to interact with Kenyatta university as part of an exchange program.

Speaking at the port of Mombasa, Ololtua said the arrival of the ship is an indication of tourism confidence with the coast destination.

He said the tourism sector was in an upward trajectory both local and international owing to investor confidence.

“The visitors are going to create a very huge impact to the economy of Kenya because as they enjoy it they will spend in hotels, buy our goods, artifacts and this is a very good source of foreign exchange earnings,” said Ololtua.

The ship will stay at Mombasa Port for six days and apart from learning, the students will visit tourist sites like Fort Jesus, Haller Park and Tsavo National Park, Maasai Mara and other tourism destinations.

“There is a lot of hope that things will happen, what has made it possible for the cruise ship to come to the coast is part of the infrastructure improved by the Kenya ports authority in collaboration with the government,” said Ololtua.

Ololtua said the lifting of Indian Ocean ban as high risk areas by the global maritime Authority is set to attract more cruise vessels docking at the port of Mombasa. This is the third ship after a similar one docked in November and December.

“We are doing a lot to market Kenya as a destination, we are using the digital technology to market our products out there, we are expanding on digital space to do so, we are also working with the ministry to improve the road network to facilitate easy movement of tourists,” said Ololtua.

The government is also embarking on creating new tourism markets by launching more direct flights to the coastal destination. This was evident when the government launched the Dubai-Mombasa direct flights to boost tourism.

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) manager in charge of corporate affairs Edward Kamau said Kenya is banking on infrastructural development at the port to receive more cruise vessels.

“We expect to have another cruise ship in February this year, with all this efforts we want to ensure that as the port that many tourists will continue to use our infrastructure that we have put in place, we anticipate that many vessels will dock at the port,” said Kamau.

The vessel is among six ships known as Semester at Sea operates the World’s floating campus where students take their studies aboard a ship.

The students will be learning about Kenya’s history as part of their semester studies.MV World Odyssey built in a way such that it resembles a normal college together with all the needed infrastructure and amenities

Some of the tourists expressed their joy for visiting the country for the first time. speaking to journalists they said they are expecting to visit the Maasai Mara national park.

"We are happy that we get an opportunity to visit Kenya, we are from California and visiting national parks is what we want to experience," said Natalia, one of students from the US