"Cruising is not only about journeys at sea, but about livelihoods, opportunity, and long-term value on land," said Gloria Guevara, President and CEO, World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), as she opened the Cruising for Impact April 2026 report.
Those words, and certain findings from the WTTC's latest report, could not be more relevant to a country sitting on 7,500 kilometres of coastline and more than 20,000 kilometres of navigable rivers and canals.
The study revealed that in 2024, 34.6 million passengers sailed on cruise ships worldwide, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, sustaining 18 lakh jobs and generating $60.1 billion in wages. In Indian currency, that is around ₹5.6 lakh crore!
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Passenger capacity is set to grow by a further 19 per cent between 2022 and 2028, making this one of the fastest-growing segments in global tourism. And for every 20 cruise passengers, one full-time job is supported on land, noted the report.
India is already writing its own chapter of this story. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) recently identified 38 river cruise circuits spread across the country, of which 15 are fully operational today. From the Ganga's Kolkata-Varanasi highway of temples, to the Brahmaputra's sweeping landscape in Assam, to the coconut palm-fringed backwaters of Kerala's West Coast Canal (Kottapuram to Kollam), Indian rivers are increasingly becoming floating tourism destinations.
In 2023-24 alone, 371 cruise trips were conducted on national waterways, carrying a total of 11,431 passengers, a near-tenfold rise from the 1,191 who sailed in 2020-21 during the pandemic, as per IWAI data.
Under India's Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, river cruise tourism is embedded within a wider framework for inclusive waterway development, with hybrid electric and hydrogen-powered vessels already being introduced to make the experience cleaner and more sustainable.
The WTTC report also mentioned that global cruise lines actively recruit from maritime academies in countries like India.
This opens further possibilities of well-paying, career-building employment at sea for young Indians. With over 60 per cent of cruise travellers globally returning to destinations they first discovered by ship, investing in India's waterways today could unlock crores of loyal visitors and livelihoods for decades to come.
