Cruise terminals in Mina Rashid welcomed over 30 ship calls in January 2015, disembarking over 150,000 cruise tourists in the emirate in just one month, including 26 hub ship calls from four cruise lines, making it the busiest month of Dubai’s cruise season so far, according to a statement from the Dubai Cruise Tourism which was issued today.
Mina Rashid also accommodated five cruise ships at the same time on two occasions in January, a first in the terminal’s history, as well as welcoming Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, the largest cruise ship to call in the GCC.
"January was a busy month for Dubai’s cruise industry and we’ve reached some real milestones and made significant progress towards our targets. In 2014, Dubai received 358,000 passengers from 94 cruise ship calls, and the forecast for 2015 stands at 425,000 cruise tourists from 115 ship calls. With the total figure for January 2015 alone at 150,000 visitors, we’re confident that our 2015 target is achievable," said Hamad bin Mejren, Executive Director, Dubai Tourism.
January 2015 saw major cruise lines visit Dubai, including Costa, Aida, TUI, MSC, Cunard, Phoenix Reisen, Fred Olsen and Holland America. The busiest week was 25th-31st January, with a total of ten ships in port.
For the first time in its history, Mina Rashid twice catered to five cruise ships at the same time, on 10th and 31st January, representing approximately 50,000 cruise tourists.
"We’ve had a successful cruise season so far and we have further growth forecasted for the remainder of the 2014-2015 season. The new terminal has enabled us to welcome even more ships than we’ve been able to in the past and this will have a significant impact on our cruise visitor figures," he added.
The Hamdan bin Mohammed Cruise Terminal, inaugurated on 11th December 2014, is the world’s largest and most modern covered cruise facility, enabling award-winning Mina Rashid to handle complete passenger turnaround of five cruise vessels simultaneously, accounting for more than 25,000 passengers.
Dubai Cruise Tourism is part of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, DTCM.