Costa neo Romantica opens new cruise tourism season in Dubai

The cruise ship Costa neo Romantica arrived Dubai from Abu Dhabi on the 9th October at 0800 hrs and will be heading to Khassab at 1800 hrs on the 11th Oct '12. During the two days stay in Dubai, the ship had over 1000 passenger turnaround.

Dubai Cruise Tourism Department arranged for a welcome ceremony followed by plaque exchange with the ship's captain Marco Derin from Italy to commemorate the maiden call.

The event was attended by Mr. Giovanni Fatelli, Consul General of Italy as well as representatives from General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, Dubai Customs, Dubai Police and DP World.

The upcoming season will add another world-class cruise line, TUI cruises from Germany to the home porting list of cruise lines in Dubai. The cruise ship Mein Schiff 2 which means 'My Ship' will make her inaugural call to Dubai on the 3rd November, 2012, the first venture of the cruise line in this region. The German ship will make 20 calls to Dubai in the season bringing over 75,000 cruise tourists.

Costa Crociere from Italy, one of the longstanding loyal partner of Dubai's cruise tourism will have two ships from their fleet deployed in the region operating 4 nights, 5 nights and 7 nights cruises out of Dubai. One of the two ships to be deployed is Costa Atlantica, she will make her maiden call to Dubai in December, 2012.

The list of 'new' in the season for Dubai continues, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, USA will deploy cruise ship Serenade of the Seas to operate the weekly cruises in the region which will be fully refurbished by then with all latest and modern amenities. This will be the maiden call of the ship to Dubai as well. One of the world's leading luxury cruise line Celebrity Cruises will make their debut in UAE with the call of their cruise ship Celebrity Solstice to Dubai on the 11th November, 2012.

On the other hand, Aida Cruises from Germany will continue its operation in the region with Dubai as their home port with the deployment of C.S. Aida Blu. Aida cruises is one of the cruise lines who pioneer in 2006 to position a ship in this region operating cruises out of Dubai.

In addition to the four home porting cruise lines in Dubai, in the season 2012 / 13 it will receive ships from the fleets of over 15 different world's leading cruise lines around the globe. This reaffirms the emirate's strong emergence in the cruise industry.

The initiatives and continual efforts of DTCM has reaffirmed Dubai's position as the cruise hub of the region and it is a combination of factors that are driving Dubai's cruise tourism business towards robust growth. Besides the obvious attractions that Dubai has to offer for its tourists from around the world in the form of excellent air connectivity, good infrastructure, multimodal transport system, world-class hotels & restaurants, vast stretches of sandy beaches, sprawling shopping malls and an array of outdoor activities, Dubai offers simple immigration formalities, customized operation procedures in a safe environment.

Dubai has been constantly enhancing its facilities and services in line with the business growth and accordingly the Dubai Cruise Terminals will have three dedicated facilities to cater the cruise lines and visitors this season. Spanning over 20,000 square meters and a pier length of 1900 meters which could conveniently accommodate up to 6 ocean going ships simultaneously, Dubai will have the largest facility in the Middle East dedicated for cruise tourism.

The continual efforts of DTCM, Government of Dubai and with the support extended by other government departments namely Immigration, Customs, Police, DP World combined with the cooperation of cruise lines, ship agencies, DMC's and other stake holders the cruise tourism sector in Dubai is to scale new heights in the years to come.