Subhash Chandra-owned Essel Group's Jalesh Cruises sailed its first ship MS Karnika on April 17, 2019, and is now planning to introduce its 2nd newbuild by October 2020 due to robust demand for cruises in India.
According to Rajiv Duggal, Jalesh Cruises Strategic Advisor, they had witnessed huge demand since Karnika sailed from Mumbai in April, last year. He added they were witnessing huge growth in bookings and in 2020 were expecting minimum 35-40% growth in bookings from 2019.
Rajiv Duggal added cruising was also a huge employment-generating medium. Currently, on Karnika they had 900 crew members and would be adding another 900 with the new ship.
As a long term goal, the company was planning to have 4-5 cruise ships in the next 5 years.