A remarkable growth of cruise ships calling the Port of Colombo has been reported in this year. According to the records of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, 45 cruise ships have called at the Port of Colombo in the last 10 months of this year which is 28.8 % increase against the corresponding period in 2017.
This record-breaking growth is a significant achievement after declaring the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 as tourism and investment years of Sri Lanka by President Maithripala Sirisena with the objective of creating a prosperous country. These years have been declared to ease the planning for the next three years to overcome all challenges in the fields of hotel and tourism in Sri Lanka by 2020.
Meanwhile, the Port of Colombo has witnessed the highest growth of 19.5% in transshipment container throughput for the first 10 months in 2018 as against the corresponding period in 2017. During the first ten months of 2018, the Port of Colombo handled 4,717,746 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of transshipment containers as against 3,948,163 TEUs handled in the corresponding period in 2017.
Under the leadership Minister of Ports and Shipping Mahinda Samarasinghe, and advice by the Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Dr Parakrama Dissanayake the positive increase at SLPA controlled terminal, Jaya Container Terminal (JCT), and Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), and South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) collectively resulted in this increase.
Following Minister Samarasinghe assuming office as the Minister of Ports and Shipping, an exclusive 3-year plan was introduced to develop the entire port sector to establish Sri Lanka as the most preferred maritime gateway to South Asia.
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