Walkers Tours to welcome two cruise vessels this month

Leading destination management company (DMC) Walkers Tours is about to welcome two cruises, MS Amera and MS Artania belonging to the Phoenix Reisen, Germany. The cruises carrying German nationals are expected to arrive in the second and third weeks of January.
MS Amera, a mid-sized premium category passenger cruise vessel with the capacity of 835 passengers and 440 crew members will call to Colombo on 12th January. She will stay in Colombo Port and leave on 13th January.  

There will be 250 plus passengers disembarking and 250 plus passengers embarking the ship. Shore excursions are planned for both 12th and 13th of January for the passengers, and they will be visiting some key tourist sites in Sri Lanka including Negombo, Colombo and Kandy. This is the first passenger exchange happening in Sri Lanka after a long time.
The second passenger exchange will take place with the arrival of MS Artania, a large premium category passenger cruise vessel with the capacity of 1260 passengers and 535 crew members. She will call to Colombo on 18th of January and leave Colombo on 20th January for Hambantota for a day call on 21st January, which altogether is a four-day call in Sri Lanka. 

MS Artenia’s passenger exchange will take place in Colombo on 19th January with 150 plus passengers disembarking and 700 plus passengers embarking. There are shore excursions planned for the passengers on both 19th and 20th January in Colombo and 21st January in Hambantota. They will be visiting some of Sri Lanka’s highlights including Negombo, Colombo, Kandy, Udawalawe, Kataragama and Dickwella.   

Passenger exchanges are rare in Sri Lanka, as rare as 1 in 100 regular calls, and it is noteworthy that two passenger exchanges will be taking place one week apart as we begin a new year. This is a rare opportunity for the island to make way for income generation via value added products such as pre/ post cruise lounge facilities, and the ships staying multiple days in Sri Lanka would mean a large influx of revenue in comparison to a normal day call in Sri Lanka.