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Indonesia welcome maiden docking of cruise ship
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Passengers leave Pacific Eden cruise ship after the vessel docked at Benoa Port in Bali, making it the first cruise ship to do so at a local port. (JP/Hasyim Widhiarto)
I
ndonesia's tourist industry has reached a new milestone after a Pacific Eden cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers docked on Thursday at Bali's Benoa Port, the first to do so.
The 220-meter-long vessel departed on Sunday from Fremantle Port, Australia, and headed to the popular resort island before making stops at other tourist destinations in the archipelago such as Lombok and the Komodo Islands.
The docking was made possible after state-owned port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) III, which manages Benoa Port, upgraded the facility into a cruise terminal.
"Previously, cruise ships stopping in Bali have to moor quite far from Benoa Port, but this time we have one docking for the first time ever," Tourism Ministry's deputy for Asia-Pacific tourism promotion, Vinsensius Jemadu, said.
Pacific Eden, operated by P&O Cruises Australia, needed about 30 minutes to dock in Benoa Port with help from two tugboats.
Indonesia has been intensifying efforts to boost its tourism, aiming for the arrival of 20 million foreign tourists in 2019.
The development of the Benoa cruise terminal is expected to boost the number of tourist arrivals by cruise ships to 500,000 by 2019.
