Dubai recognises potential of cruise tourism
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Dubai Tourism recently recognised the contribution of its public and private sector partners to the growth of cruise tourism.
Hamad bin Mejren, executive director – Dubai Tourism said: “We already have a very healthy cruise sector in Dubai as the home port of choice. To match the ambition of Dubai’s tourist industry as a whole, we have ambitious plans of our own for cruise. We expect to welcome 450,000 cruise tourists by 2016 and to record continued, sustainable growth until 2020 – and beyond. To achieve our goals, it is essential that we have the continued support of our partners, which is why today’s ceremony is so important.”
Certificates of appreciation were handed out to DP World as well as Dubai General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs which earlier this year introduced the cruise tourism visa. The other departments recognised were Dubai Police, Dubai Customs, Dubai Maritime City Authority, Ports Customers and Freezone Corporation – Security Department, Road and Transport Authority, Environment Health & Safety, and Dubai Culture.
The new cruise season begins in late October 2014 and runs through to June 2015. The number of vessels using Dubai Cruise Terminal as their home port has increased to six this season and these vessels are expected to make a total of 83 trips in comparison to the 63 trips that were conducted in the previous 2013-14 season. Moreover, the team is expecting a total of 110 ship calls – up by 17 (an increase of 18.5%) on the 2013-14 season – carrying around 381,500 passengers in comparison to 93 ship calls carrying 320,000 passengers last year.
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