In order to promote cruise tourism in India, a special event, 'The dawn of cruise tourism in India' was inaugurated in Mumbai today. <br/><br/>The preparedness of Mumbai Port and Ministry of shipping to host cruise vessels in the country is revealed to a worldwide audience at the event. It also saw the launch of three reports, "Mumbai Port SoP's for cruise operations", "Road map for Sea cruise tourism" and "Cruise terminals in India".<br/> <br/>According to the reports, this initiative has a potential revenue gains to all stakeholders of close to Rs. 35000 crore. Promotion of cruise tourism is expected to create over 2, 50,000 jobs. With this new initiative, number of cruise ships visiting India could go up from 158 per year to 955 per year. <br/><br/>Union Minister for Shipping, Nitin Gadkari expressed hope for bright future of cruise tourism in India. He said that bureaucracy and systems are the reasons for delay in several projects.