The 2022-2023 cruise season in Qatar is ready to be a serious success, with over 50 cruise ships and 200,000 guests anticipated from now till April 2023. Qatar Tourism introduced the return of the cruise season and forecasted a surge in guests to the nation.
This season, Qatar will welcome passengers on the Grand Cruise Terminal, a newly designed constructing that pays homage to traditional Arabian structure. The Doha Port just lately served as a house base for main worldwide cruise ships through the World Cup soccer in Qatar, together with the MSC World Europa and MSC Poesia.
Popularity of Cruising within the Persian Gulf
Cruising has change into more and more in style within the Persian Gulf lately. The area’s heat local weather, year-round sunshine, and wealthy cultural heritage make it a first-rate vacationer vacation spot.
Qatar’s cruise sector, particularly, has grown tremendously during the last decade and now performs a necessary function within the nation’s tourism technique. Qatar is seeing continued and growing choice as a vacation spot for each common cruise calls and cruises with turnaround calls, with no less than 50 cruise ships scheduled to go to the nation within the coming months, bringing greater than 200,000 cruise passengers to the gulf area.
Head of Tourism Product Support at Qatar Tourism Maryam Saoud stated: “Qatar’s cruise sector has grown tremendously in recent years and now contributes an important pillar to our tourism strategy. We’re seeing continued, increasing preference for Qatar as a destination for both regular cruise calls and cruises with turnaround calls.”
Qatar’s function within the enhance in cruise tourism within the Persian Gulf is sgnificant. Together with Dubai, Doha has been steadily rising right into a must-visit vacation spot within the Gulf area.
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The port is ideally located inside strolling distance of iconic landmarks, together with the National Museum of Qatar, Souq Waqif, Downtown Doha, and the Doha Corniche, the place guests can soak up beautiful views of the town’s skyline.
“Doha Port is being developed to become one of the main tourist attractions in the region. We look forward to another successful tourism season that will contribute to strengthening the cruise industry and maintaining Qatar’s position as a leading tourism hub in the region.”
Besides Qatar, cruises within the Persian Gulf sometimes sail to locations equivalent to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and Oman. Some cruises additionally go to ports in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Additionally, many voyages to the Persian Gulf additionally embrace stops in different components of the Middle East, equivalent to Egypt and Jordan, in addition to persevering with to ports in India and Southeast Asia.
Cruise Ships as Hotel Ships
During the World Cup soccer match in Qatar in 2022, two MSC cruise ships, the MSC World Europa and the MSC Poesia, had been used as resort ships to accommodate hundreds of worldwide followers.
The MSC World Europa, MSC Cruises’ flagship, was notably in style amongst guests and offered MSC with appreciable free promoting amongst hundreds of thousands of viewers of the match. Using these cruise ships as resort ships was a singular and progressive strategy to accommodate the numerous worldwide guests who got here to Qatar for the match.
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MSC Cruises has performed a pivotal function within the improvement of cruising within the center east and is at the moment the market chief within the area. But it’s extra than simply MSC that’s working within the space. AIDA, Costa Cruises, TUI Cruises, Silversea, and Azamara will all be crusing to Qatar within the coming months.
On January twelfth, the MSC World Europa made historical past as the primary cruise ship to dock at King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. This name, historically used for cargo on the Arabian Gulf, marks a big milestone for the cruise trade within the area.
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