Importance of Sea Transport in the Development of Tourism and International Trade

Travel by ship was the only means to travel overseas till the middle of the twentieth century. We can broadly divide water borne transport into short sea ferry transport and ocean going cruises.

Ferry transportation is the only option in the case of remote and small islands which have no airport. In Greece, there are only 15 airports to serve 95 islands.

Shipping made significant contribution to travel during the nineteenth century. Regular steamship services started playing on the North Atlantic from 1838.

Opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened the route between the East and the West and in turn stimulated better steamship service.

The period just before the First World War can be considered the golden age for liner passenger service. By the 60s, passenger ships were losing ground to airlines till these vanished as passenger transport by the 70s.

Some large ships have since been converted into luxury liners offering holidays to travelers who have money and time.

Water transport today plays two main roles in travel and tourism ferrying and cruising.

The introduction of commercial airline led to the decline of the use of ships as a passenger transportation mode. Cruising has taken the place of scheduled liner services.

Modern vessels such as the wave-piercing catamaran, the hydrofoil and the hovercraft have been introduced on some short distance routes. There is a 40-minute hydrofoil service between Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmo (Sweden).

Hydrofoils have been introduced to connect some of the Hawaiians islands and also Hong Kong and Macau. The new fast jet foils cross 40 miles of sea between Hong Kong and Macau in 50 minutes.

The speed of these new sea crafts is up to three times that of a conventional ferry, they can turn around quickly in port and need minimum dock facilities. In 1991 more than 3 million people took cruise holidays worldwide.

Indian Shipping:

Overseas shipping has an extremely important role to play in India’s international trade. The country has the largest merchant shipping fleet among developing countries and ranks seventeenth in the world in shipping tonnage. In 1995, the operative tonnage consisted 460 vessels totaling to 6.85 million GRT.

There were 71 shipping companies in the country in operation in 1995 including the Shipping Corporation of India, a public sector undertaking. Of these, 39 are engaged exclusively in coastal and overseas trade.

Shipping Corporation of India which is the biggest shipping line of the country, has a merchant fleet of 124 vessels of 31 lakhs GRT and operates on almost all maritime routes.

Shipping Corporation of India’s tonnage accounts for about 49 per cent of the total Indian tonnage. We are trying our best to develop our shipping industry for greater national good.

Image Source : upload.wikimedia.org