Pelindo welcomes operational ease for tour boat operators

Denpasar, May 17, 2024 - Pelindo welcomes the move by the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Pandjaitan, which provides operational ease for tourist ships, cruises and yachts, in terms of policies and operations to sail in Indonesian waters.

Luhut said that various regulations related to maritime activities in Indonesia must be harmonized between ministries and institutions. According to him, this step needs to be taken so that existing regulations do not make it difficult for business actors, which in turn will harm Indonesia.

"Do not make rules that complicate ourselves. All regulations must be harmonized for the national interest," Luhut explained. In line with this, Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said that the move would have a positive impact on tourism and the Indonesian economy.

"We will make it easier for cruise ships and yachts to operate in Indonesia. That way, people can enjoy an extraordinary experience using these tourist ships in several cities, such as Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Bali, to Labuan Bajo," Budi said.

With this convenience, Pelindo can attract tour boat, cruise and yacht operators to make Benoa Port in Denpasar, Bali, their home port.

The development of Benoa Port into the Bali Maritime Tourism Hub (BMTH) is expected to become the home port for principal cruise, which is where passengers begin and end their cruise trips around a number of destinations.

 "The development of BMTH, which is partially targeted for completion by the end of 2024, can increase the capacity of cruise ships from two to four to five cruise ships berthing simultaneously," said Pelindo President Director Arif Suhartono.

Currently, Benoa Port can serve jumbo cruise ships for berthing (destination port) and passenger embarkation and debarkation services (turn around). Cruise ships dock at the east pier with a length of 500 meters after previously adding 160 meters. That way, two jumbo-size cruise ships with a length of around 294 meters can berth at the same time.

For the first time, Benoa Harbor was also visited by the longest cruise ship ever to dock with a LoA of 317 meters, the Celebrity Solstice, which carried around 4,000 passengers and crew members on October 30, 2023.

Previously, January 4, 2024 marked the first time that Benoa served debarkation and embarkation of different foreign passengers on the same cruise ship, Celebrity Millenium with a length of 294 meters by disembarking 2,081 passengers and raising 2,300 passengers.

By 2023, Pelindo noted that BMTH had served a total of 48 ships with passengers reaching 77,864 people.

"With the development of BMTH, we hope to have an economic impact on Bali to develop more rapidly," concluded Arif.