A luxury cruise ship carrying 216 tourists and 222 crew members of different nationalities arrived in Mombasa Tuesday morning from Seychelles.

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The passenger ship, MS Silver Cloud, which is operated by Silversea cruises is one of the most spacious cruise ships with ocean-view suites and private verandas for making cruise experience more memorable.

The tourists mostly Europeans on a one day voyage were met at the Kilindini harbour by officials from the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) and Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).

Just outside the KPA terminal they have been met by buses that have been booked up for tours around various attraction sites in Mombasa and Kwale counties.

"The tourists will visit Fort Jesus in Mombasa and the Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary in Kwale for game drives as part of their tourism programme," said Kimutai Ngeno the KTB assistant manager for Public Relations and Communications.

He went on "this is the first cruise ship of the tourism high season and we expect to receive another cruise liner scheduled to dock here over the weekend".

Ngeno said the cruise ship came from Seychelles and will be heading to Zanzibar after a day’s stay in Mombasa.

He said last year the country attracted 1180 cruise tourists compared to 600 tourists in 2014.

Evelyn Mwamure, Manager Conventional Cargo at the KPA said the authority was on course to building a world class cruise ship terminal as it aims to increase cruise tourist numbers.

She said it is necessary for the port to have cruise ship passenger terminal where tourists can rest on arrival or before departure and this ‘could even see bigger cruise liners operate from here’.

The cruise terminal will improve boarding for hundreds of cruise tourism passengers who now use makeshift facilities at the port.