Cruise season to see more cruise tourists than the previous years with Dubai Cruise Terminal ready to host maiden calls by two cruise ships.

Dubai hosts 135 cruise ships with 375,000 tourists in 2011

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) announced that 20 cruise ships with hundreds of passengers and crew members were hosted by the Dubai Cruise Terminal in two weeks period. This is the first time in cruise tourism history in Dubai that such a large number of cruise ships were received by Dubai Cruise Terminal in such a short period of time, from October 28 to December 15.

Dubai Cruise Terminal is organising a grand welcome ceremony to commemorate the maiden call of C.S. Costa Favalosa and C.S. Aida Blu cruise ships to Dubai on December 15. C.S. Costa Favalosa is a brand new ship of Costa Crociere of Italy which was inaugurated on 2nd July 2011 in Trieste. The 114,500 tonnage ship has carrying capacity of 3800 passengers and 1110 crew. C.S. Aida Blu is a new ship from Aida Cruises, a German cruise liner, with a capacity to carry 2050 passengers and 607 crew members. C.S. Costa Favalosa and Aida Blu will be operating weekly cruise itinerary in the region with Dubai as their home port. Favalosa will bring more than 100,000 passengers in 19 calls to Dubai and Aida Blu will account for more than 50,000 cruise passengers to Dubai in 13 calls to Dubai in this season 2011/ 12.

Dubai will close the year 2011 by receiving a total of 135 cruise ships with 375,000 tourists while the year 2012 is expected to bring in 150 cruise ships with about 425,000 passengers.

Dubai has taken a leadership position in developing cruise tourism in the Gulf when it opened the region's first dedicated cruise terminal in 2001. A year after the opening of the terminal in 2001, there were only 17 ship calls and over 3000 cruise tourists. The doubling of the capacity of Dubai Cruise Terminal last year will go a long way in handling more cruise tourists and cruise liners in the coming years.

Cruise tourism has been growing steadily in Dubai due to DTCM efforts and growing interest of cruise liners to tap Dubai's strong tourism infrastructure, air connectivity and strategic location at the crossroads of the East and West. Dubai has emerged as the destination of choice for many global cruise providers who are now using the emirate as a regional hub for their operations, creating a major boost to the growth of the region's cruise tourism.

Dubai has been selected by a number of high profile cruise providers as their regional hub, which was pioneered by Costa Cruises when it made Dubai its regional cruise hub in 2007 giving the growing cruise industry a major boost. Dubai began to serve as a Home Port for 2 major European Cruise Lines Costa & Aida with 4 calls in 2006.

In May this year, Dubai Cruise Terminal was voted Middle East's leading cruise port for the 4th straight year at the World Travel Awards after about 213,000 industry professionals participated in the voting process. Dubai Cruise Terminal is now operated by DP World and managed by DTCM. The new terminal spans a staggering 3,450 square metres and can handle up to four ships simultaneously. It is the only cruise terminal in the world managed by a government tourism organisation.