During the past one month, our quaint little village has been receiving visitors from Germany. This has been possible through Lotus Destinations Pvt. Ltd. who have arranged to get these visitors to our Heritage Village. These tourists have been coming to Mumbai by Cruise Ships starting from Germany via Dubai, Mumbai, Goa and then Mangalore. So far we have received four groups of visitors starting from 23rd November 2016, 5th December 2016, 19th December 2016 and 20th December 2016. These cruises are typically of around 14 days duration. Visitors who had come on 19th and 20th December 2016 came by the Cruise Ship “Aida Aura”. Their stopover in Mumbai is mainly for one night or maximum two nights and one of their must visit places while in Mumbai is to our Heritage Village at Matharpacady. Besides a walk around our heritage precinct to explain the history of the various landmarks, the visitors are treated to a brunch by Hansel Baptista at his residence. Almost all the visitors are surprised that such a quaint, quiet little place exists in the heart of the city. With the Christmas decorations already up, the whole place looks very festive with Christmas Carols filling the air. We have heard that more Cruise Ships will be stopping by at Mumbai and at least two Cruise Ships will be expected every month.
Given below please find an article in The Times of India of 23rd December 2016 (Page 5) – “First Cruise Ship set to sail from City and back”
Mumbai: Italian international cruise ship Costa-neo-Classica arrived at MbPT in Mumbai at 8.30am on Thursday. It is the first one to be home-ported in Mumbai (will start and end its cruise operations in Mumbai). This home-porting experiment matters most in the history of Indian cruise tourism since earlier ventures have failed and could not last for long. Home-porting will also reduce cost of cruising for Indian tourist
The ship started from Maldives with 1,100 passengers, 400 of whom had flown to Maldives from India. In Mumbai, 1,001 passengers disembarked while 99 will continue their onward journey. Around 840 tourists will embark the ship from Mumbai. The ship will leave Mumbai for New Mangalore port on Saturday. After a day’s stay there and sight-seeing it will leave for Kochi port. — Chittaranjan Tembhekar
Note : Photographs of visitors who visited our Village on 20th December 2016.
