Dubai Tourism kicks off second Cruise tourism roadshow
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Dubai Cruise Tourism recently kicked off a three-city roadshow in China to showcase Dubai as an embarkation destination on an international cruise itinerary for Chinese tourists.
Reinforcing the growing prominence of China as an international source market, the roadshow was conducted in Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.
The roadshow showcased Dubai’s credentials as a cruise destination ahead of the 2015-16 season, which commences in September. These initiatives contributed to the 2014-15 cruise season being recognized as the best performing Dubai cruise season to date with an 11% increase over the 2012-2013 season, which held the record previously. So far, the first half of 2015 has seen a 21% increase in ship calls and 42% increase in number of cruise tourists.
This year’s roadshow featured a series of training sessions and workshops for China’s travel trade professionals. The roadshow also included partners from MSC, and Royal Caribbean International.
Hamad bin Mejren, senior vice president, Dubai Tourism said: “There is an increasing appetite amongst Chinese tourists to discover destinations differently and cruising from Dubai is a concept they have embraced with enthusiasm. China ranks number 20 in the top source markets for Dubai’s Cruise Tourism. With this visit, we are hoping to build on that success and further boost number of Chinese Cruise tourists visiting emirates. Chinese visitors to Dubai increased by 27% in the last year and we look forward to a similar increase in the numbers for cruise tourism sector as well.”
The Dubai cruise season runs from September to June, with 2015-16 expected see a total of 128 cruise ship calls in the city, bringing more than 465,000 cruise tourists.
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