Dubai Cruise Season: In Popular Demand
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Dubai: A Growing Presence In World Cruise Tourism
The success of the Dubai Cruise Terminal in Port Rashid became evident last year. In December 2018, 725,000 cruise tourists visited Dubai because either they were aboard transitioning cruise ships or flying into Dubai to board a homeporting cruise ship. The number of cruise tourists just four short years back was 320,000. The massive jump stands proof of the success of Dubai Cruise Terminal.
There were five cruise ships anchored at Port Rashid simultaneously at the start of the 2018-19 winter cruise season. On the Arabian Gulf, the ships came from:
- UK
- USA
- Italy
- Spain
- Germany
5 Cruise Ships With 4 Homeporting
The new cruise terminal 3 at Port Rashid has a capacity of 35,000 tourists. When the five ships anchored at the port, they brought in 25,000 tourists. Out of the five, four had a roundtrip cruise starting from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The five ships were the Marella Discovery, the new ship bought by Marella Cruise. The Discovery stayed for just one night on the port on its way to a two-week cruise to Langkawi to board some passengers from Dubai.
A Milestone Achieved By Dubai Cruise Tourism
The four other cruise ships were:
- Pullmantur Cruises’ ship Horizon
- Celebrity Cruises’ ship Celebrity Constellation
- MSC Cruises mega-ship MSC Splendida
- AIDA Cruises brand new AIDAprima
Though all four were homeporting, three of the cruises were embarking on their maiden voyage. Discovery, Horizon, and AIDAprima achieving a milestone were the three new ships that created the benchmark for the latest cruise terminal.
The ships were a testament to the growing prominence of Dubai Cruise Tourism. In the coming years, the terminal at Port Rashid is set to break more landmarks.
