Luxury vessel Arcadia with 2,100 tourists arrive

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, along with the officials of Sri Lanka Port Authority, welcomed the vessel ‘Arcadia’ yesterday at a brief ceremony held in the Colombo harbour. This luxury carrier, owned by the UK based company Carnival PLC, had more than 2,100 tourists on board, with British, Australian, New Zealand and Brazil nationals.

The local excursion tour operator Gemini Tours and Travels thereafter took the tourists in the ship to prearranged destinations, Kandy, Pinnawala and on a Colombo City Tour.

The vessel was scheduled to leave for Thailand.

Arcadia has 11 decks inclusive of a state-of-the-art swimming pool, an auditorium, a gym and a restaurant.

Having set sail from the UK on January 3, the vessel was berthed at Cochin, India, just before resuming its journey to Colombo.

According to the SLPA officials, more than 20 such luxury carriers, coordinated by the Shipping Agency Services (Pvt) limited, had already been programmed to tie up in Colombo by the end of 2012.