Taking a leaf out of the airlines' book, cruise liners have now started enticing the 'early birds' with money saver booking options, by introducing discount schemes that reward passengers for booking their cruise tickets early.

The airlines, international as well as domestic, offer the early bird offer through their apex fare scheme.

Star Cruises, the fourth largest cruise liner in the world, has for the first time introduced a 'Star Saver' booking option, wherein passengers booking their tickets 60 days in advance can now avail a 10 per cent discount on fare.

Confirming the development, Vijay Puthran, sales manager, Star Cruises (India), said, "India has proved to be a potential market for the liners as the growth rates have been very promising. The early bird scheme is primarily aimed at educating and attracting a new segment of tourist towards this outbound leisure product."

According to Puthran, the war has had no impact on this segment. However, the virus in Singapore may impact business soon.

While on the face of it the scheme looks like any other discount offer, it is significant that the scheme is specifically targeted at Indians.

The lowest cabin fares for a two-nights, three-nights and five-nights cruise on Star Virgo, ex Singapore is $290, $370, $550, respectively, while ex Hong Kong the fares are $260, $320, $500, respectively.

Industry sources acknowledge that the number of Indians going on cruises is likely to cross 30,000 this year.

This is forcing global star cruise companies to take this segment more seriously than ever before and design packages specially aimed at Indian customers.