Panaji : Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari’s recent push for promotion of cruise tourism could boost employment in the sector, the promoter of a Goa-based culinary training institute has said.

Addressing a press conference here, Parixit Pai Fondekar, who heads the American College of Culinary and Language Arts also said that an employment boom was expected in the cruise liner industry.

“The Central government’s push to promote cruise tourism and the Mumbai-Goa-Bali cruise circuit proposed by Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari will really boost employment in the cruise tourism sector along the Western Coast,” he told reporters.

The global luxury cruise line industry, he said, is one of the fastest growing sectors within the global hospitality industry and requires training and skilled employees.

He said that international luxury cruise line companies are looking towards India, Goa in particular, to meet its culinary requirement needs, adding that Goan culinary professionals account for a significant chunk of the Indian workforce in the industry.

“It is estimated that over the next five years, 950 cruise ships will enter the Goan waters,” Fondekar said.

According to statistics of the Cruise Lines International Association, in 2017 Indian ports accounted for a total of 128 cruise ship calls only.

—IANS