Dubai bets big on cruise tourism to attract 20 m visitors by 2020

With a target of achieving 20 million tourists annually by 2020, Dubai Tourism is betting big on the cruise tourism, which attracted about 625,000 visitors during 2016-17.

In the last ten years, number of cruise tourists coming to Dubai has grown by six times from a modest 105,000 visitors during 2006-07, officials from Dubai Tourism informed. The cruise tourism registered a robust growth of 16-18 per cent for last year, while it is expected to maintain the similar growth trajectory with large number of visitors coming from India.

Indian visitors

Dubai sees India as an important source country for cruise tourism as the number of Indian visitors grew by 25 per cent last year, and in 2017-18 it is expected to grow by around 30 per cent. “India is 14th top source countries after top ones such as Germany, Italy, UK and the US. We are confident we will achieve our strategic goal of one million cruise tourists to Dubai by 2020-21 season,” said Jamal Humaid Al Falasi, Director, Cruise Tourism, Dubai Tourism.

Falasi accompanied by other officials from Dubai Tourism and representatives of cruise liners were in Ahmedabad for a roadshow to promote cruise tourism in Dubai.

Season

The Dubai Cruise 2017-18 season starts from October 25 with the arrival of cruise ship Seabourn Encore. More recently, Dubai Cruise also announced that P&O Cruises would be home porting in Dubai for the first time during the 2018-19 season.

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