Russian Federal Agency for Tourism suggests raising grants for ship scrapping to 50% of new cruise ship cost
The Agency has completed revising the draft concept for development of cruise tourism in the Russian Federation until 2024
Russian Federal Agency for Tourism has completed revising the draft concept for development of cruise tourism in the Russian Federation covering a period until 2024. IAA PortNews has a copy of the document. In the part of state support of shipbuilding the concept foresees further application of grants for ship scrapping with their increase to 50% of the new cruise ship cost.
According to the concept authors, “if ship scrapping grants are raised to 30%, ship owners will order 2–4 cruise ships of PV300 and ПКС-180 designs per year; if they are raised to 50%, the number of shipbuilding projects will reach 6–8 per year which will let replace the written off ships and load shipbuilding plants”.
As of today, the list of key cruise operators on Russia’s IWW includes Vodohod, Mosturflot, Infoflot (Sozvezdiye), Doninturflot, Passenger Fleet (Viking River Cruises), Sputnik-Germes, Shipping Company “OKA”, Lenaturflot, Black Sea Cruises. They operate 81 cruise ships with average age of 43 years.
According to the Agency’s Concept, an alternative measure to support modernization of the cruise fleet is the “serial construction of cruise ships (including ice-class ones) ordered by the State Transport Leasing Company (STLC) or Mashpromlizing with their further bareboat charter by cruise operators.
Other measures envisaged by the Concept include the development of a system for efficient financing of shipbuilding companies through providing state guarantees for raising loans under the projects on construction of modern ships.
The Federal Agency for Tourism also sees it reasonable to charter or purchase ships in the secondary market in view of numerous cruise ships currently idle worldwide. Besides, it emphasizes the need to develop and build new types of passenger and freight ships including ferries, sea-going and river-going cruise ships, high-speed passenger ships.
IAA PortNews and Marine Engineering Bureau earlier held two webinars dedicated to the fleet for inland cruises and to sightseeing and leisure fleet of Russia. Besides, three webinars were focused on the development of ferry business in the Baltic Basin, Far East Basin and the Caspian Basin.
