The Port of Mombasa Thursday morning welcomed a cruise ship christened ‘Ms Marco Polo with 575 passengers and 346 crew members on board.
The luxury MS, Marco Polo ship which its original port of call is United Kingdom is on a voyage to different ports in Africa with most of the passengers on board coming from the United Kingdom.
The ship will be in Mombasa port overnight before setting a voyage to Seychelles which is its next port of call.
Vice president of Inchcape Shipping Grand Hommes said Mombasa has an active tourism authority and infrastructure and Mombasa would be the main destination for cruise safari which will attract more tourists to the region.
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With the new cruise terminal Hommes says that Mombasa has a strategic advantage for cruise tourism.
Coronavirus
Kenya Ports Authority managing director Daniel Manduku said the Kenya and the port of Mombasa is ready for cruise tourism and the port is on a plan to have a memorandum with cruise ship companies so that in future Mombasa will be part of the cruise circuit.
Manduku said that the port health department has taken measures to screen all passengers before disembarking from the ship in order to avert entry of diseases such as coronavirus which has greatly affected China.