The announcement by the Government of Indonesia also includes plans to develop cruise facilities at Celukan Bawang port in North Bali.
In Benoa, the new facilities will be able to accommodate ships carrying up to 5,000 passengers at a berth of 11mtr depth. A new terminal will be capable of handling 2,500 visitors at a time.
The project will be undertaken by state-owned port management company PT Pelindo III and is set to be complete by end 2018.
Work at Celukan Bawang port is due to start in December and finish in March 2018 providing facilities to handle seven ships carrying 1,000 passengers each.
Arief Yahya, Indonesia’s minister of tourism, told local media 200,000 cruise passengers visited the country last year but hopes with the new port developments a target of 500,000 cruise visitors will be achieved by 2019.
Arief said in addition to the above mentioned improvements, the government is also planning developing cruise facilities in Belawan(Sumatra), Tanjung Priok(North Jakarta), Tanjung Perak(east Java) and Soekarno-Hatta(Sulawesi) ports.
The government is also proposing to reduce port berthing fees (currently ranging between $40-50,000) by 50% for cruise ships using the new Benoa cruise terminal in Bali.
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