As destinations in the Middle East look to grow tourist arrivals and promote intra-regional tourism, cruise tourism has been identified as one of the critical avenues to their goal. Destinations in the region are investing in infrastructure as well as collaboration to boost cruise demand.
“I think more people in the region need to be aware of cruising…that they can cruise in their own backyard and don’t need to fly six hours to the Mediterranean or 15 hours to Miami to be able to take a Caribbean cruise,” remarked Saud Hareb Almheiri, cruise tourism & yachting lead – Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) at a session during the Arabian Travel Market 2024 last week.
“We have also created the Cruise Arabia Alliance recently as we want to maintain quality and service level in the region. We are looking to expand the alliance by bringing more partners on board,” he added.
The Cruise Arabia Alliance comprises Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Oman.
Aroya Cruises – operated by state-backed Cruise Saudi – is all set to embark on its maiden three-night/four-day voyage from Jeddah in December 2024. The company currently owns one ship and is looking to launch three ships in the next decade.
Turky Kari, executive director – marketing and corporate communications, Aroya Cruises, said: “At present we have three ports that can handle cruise liners (Jeddah Islamic Port, Yanbu Commercial Port, and King Abdulaziz Port Dammam). All ports have very easy access to different destinations in Saudi, including UNESCO heritage sites and amazing beaches. We are targeting to have 10 cruise ports in Saudi by 2030. Today, we are handling around 170,000 cruise tourists and are aiming to reach 1.3 million passengers per year.”
Kari shared that the focused markets will not be restricted to domestic and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, but also the larger Arabian region.
“The Middle East is still not a hub for cruise liners, so one of our objectives is to attract more international cruise liners to the region,” said Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, chairman of Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development authority.
According to DET’s Almheiri, cruise tourism is going to play a big part in Dubai’s economic agenda, as the city in the United Arab Emirates looks to double its GDP by 2033.
“Activating our own regional market is very important to us, which we are looking to do in the near future, as well as looking eastwards towards Asia and trying to attract more Asian cruise liners,” added Almheiri.
