Sri Lanka war risk insurance costly, says cruise line

Dec 09, 2009 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's continued listing for war risk insurance is costly for shipping lines calling at Colombo port, a cruise line official said.

Khosa said Louis Cruises is offering cruises starting from an all-inclusive rate of 100 dollars a night per passenger accommodated in a basic cabin, and going up to 250 dollars for a suite.

Its cruise ship, Aquamarine, made her maiden call at Colombo on Monday, with passengers and 200 travel agents.

The vessel will make weekly calls between Cochin in India, the Maldives and Colombo.

buy zithromax online buy zithromax online no prescription
Oneil Khosa, Managing Director of Louis Cruises, the world's fifth largest cruise operator that has just begun calls at Colombo, said the war risk premium paid by the line was about 10,000 euros per call.

He described the war risk premium as one of the challenges facing the line and the island's tourism authorities in promoting Colombo as a port for cruise calls.

"One of the challenges is the war risk premium for calling Colombo," Khosa said. "It is a very steep price we're paying."

Khosa said the cost of the insurance is borne by the cruise line as passing it on to passengers would mean they would