The Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) organized a grand welcome ceremony at the Dubai Cruise Terminal to mark the maiden calls of Costa Favalosa and Aida Blu cruise ships to Dubai.
The newly-inducted cruise ships will be offering weekly regional itinerary with Dubai as the home port, it was announced at the ceremony which was attended by officials from various Dubai government organizations and Costa Crociere and Aida Cruises which operates these cruise ships.
The ceremony at the Middle East’s largest and well-equipped cruise tourism facility, located in the Port Rashid Complex, included performances by traditional music bands, a large heritage marquee and exchange of plaques between the officials and captains of both the ships.
In the presence of senior officials of Dubai Customs, General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA), DP World and World Security at the terminal, DTCM Director General, Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem exchanged plaques with Capt. Mauro Muratore of Costa Favalosa and Capt. Dieter Wieprecht of Aida Blu. Also present were Mr. Hamad bin Mejren, DTCM Executive Director for Business Tourism, and Mr. Awadh Seghayer Al Ketbi, Representative of Costa Cruise in Dubai.
A replica of a Heritage village on the pier with performance of local bands, exhibiting camels and falcons, traditional food preparations, henna painting for the passengers and crew of both the ships was set up.
The DTCM, along with its stake holders from other government department like Dubai Customs, General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA), DP World and World Security also exchanged plaques with the captains of both the ships.
A tour of the ships was also organised for the media representatives.
Addressing a Press conference, Mr. Hamad said: “It has been over a decade since DTCM began to promote cruise tourism to Dubai. Our continued efforts in conjunction with our 18 overseas representative offices and the opening of the first state-of-the-art cruise terminal in Dubai in 2001 began to draw the attention of the cruise lines around the world when we received 17 ship calls and 6,900 passengers in the first year.”
He added that the decision of Costa Crociere and Aida Cruises in 2006 to deploy their ships in the region to operate weekly cruise itinerary in the Gulf sailing out of Dubai made it possible for the emirate to pioneer as a home port for cruise ships in this region.
He thanked Costa and Aida cruises for their loyalty to Dubai by deploying their latest ships from their fleet year after year. Last year, Dubai Cruise Terminal had the unique opportunity of hosting the icebreaking event – the naming ceremony of Costa Deliziosa, the iconic ship of their fleet then. It was first time ever a cruise ship was christened in the GCC.
He said DTCM was already in collaboration with its partners, DP World, to build additional cruise terminal facilities to cater the anticipated growth of the business. We forecast 150 ship calls with a passenger turnaround of more than 600,000 passengers by 2015, he added.
Mr. Awadh Seghayer Al Ketbi said three ships operated by Costa – Favalosa, Classica and Victoria – will bring more than 233,000 to Dubai during the current cruise season.
Costa Favalosa is a brand new ship of Costa Crociere of Italy which was inaugurated on 2nd July 2011 in Trieste. The 114,500 tonnage ship has a carrying capacity of 3800 passengers and 1110 crew. Aida Blu is a new ship from Aida Cruises, a German cruise liner, with a capacity to carry 2050 passengers and 607 crew members.
Costa Favalosa and Aida Blu will be operating weekly cruise itinerary in the Arabian Gulf region with Dubai as their home port. Favalosa will bring more than 100,000 passengers in 19 calls to Dubai and Aida Blu will account for more than 50,000 cruise passengers to Dubai in 13 calls to Dubai in the 2011/ 12 cruise season.
Dubai will close the year 2011 by receiving a total of 135 cruise ships with 375,000 tourists while the year 2012 is expected to bring in 150 cruise ships with about 425,000 passengers.
In May this year, Dubai Cruise Terminal was voted Middle East’s leading cruise port for the 4th straight year at the World Travel Awards after about 213,000 industry professionals participated in the voting process.
