Dubai cruise tourists grow 18% as city targets 1m by 2020

More than 625,000 cruise tourists visited via a total of 157 ship calls during the 2016/2017 season, it was announced on Wednesday.

The numbers reflect an increase of 15 percent and 18 percent respectively when compared to the 2015/2016 season.

The 2016/2017 Dubai Cruise season officially concluded with the departure of the season’s final ship, the CS Sea Princess, from Port Rashid, a statement said.

The season also saw Thomson Cruises, the first UK-based cruise line home porting in the region, in addition to inaugural visits from TUI’s Mein Schiff 1 Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Star and MSC’s MSC Fantasia among the eight other maiden ship calls, it added.

Jamal Humaid Al Falasi, director of Dubai Cruise Tourism said: “We are very pleased with the success of our 2016/2017 cruising season, and with the city’s sustained popularity as a winter cruise destination.

"Bolstered by our recent success and our upcoming partnerships over the coming seasons, we are confident we will achieve our strategic goal of welcoming 1 million cruise tourists to Dubai by 2020/2021 cruise season.”

The Dubai Cruise 2017/2018 season is set to commence on October 25, with the arrival of cruise ship Seabourn Encore.

Dubai Cruise has also recently announced that P&O Cruises will be home porting in Dubai for the first time during the 2018/2019 season.