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29 March 2024

Half a million cruise tourists visit Dubai each year

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The development of services at Dubai seaports has made them among the world’s top destinations for winter cruise tourism, according to Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director General of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA).

 “This came as result of the great efforts of GDRFA staff to boost tourism in the UAE,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Al-Marri added that cruise tourism in the UAE in general and in Dubai, specifically is increasing steadily along with the number of cruise tourists increased as the Dubai received more than half million cruise tourists in 2014 and the numbers are expected to cross 600,000 this year with more vessels sailing into the UAE waters.

“Cruise tourists number was only 10,000 tourists in Dubai in 1998, and it is more than half million now, and it is expected to further increase during the tourist season in Dubai which begins in October and ends in July of each year.”

He added that the aim is to attract more tourists by offering unique services to the public and also through marketing by cooperating with the concerned authorities such as DP World and the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) to promote tourism sector in Dubai and in the UAE.

Meanwhile, Colonel Hussein Ibrahim, Assistant of the Director-General for the Sea and Land ports at the GDRFA-Dubai, said that there are six seaports in Dubai: Jebel Ali Port, Port Rashid, Al Shindagha Port, Al Hamriya Port, the Dry Dock Port in addition to the Creek and the GDRFA-Dubai offers different kind of services in those ports such as the registration of ships and sailors, dealing with tourists, visa issuing and more.

“The fact that Dubai airport offers flights to most places in the world and the excellent services of all  authorities in Dubai that make most of the shipping and tourist companies prefer to come via Dubai seaport.”

Colonel Hussein said some vessels which arrive to Dubai seaports have to change the crews of ship which means sailors leave via Dubai Airports and others join and also tourists in a cruise coming from around the world most often use Dubai Airports to return to their countries.  According to official statistics, 75 per cent of tourists across the sea ports in Dubai return to their country through Dubai Airports.

Colonel Hussein said that the cruise tourism in Dubai is increasing steadily as Dubai received very high number of cruise tourists in the years 2013 and 2014 due to the quality of services provided. In addition to the cruise tourists the GDRFA staff also deal with the ships’ crews which numbered 1,500 to 2,000 people in each ship, because such ships are kind of mobile hotels with staff and workers in various professions in addition to the crew as well as tourists whose numbers in each ship is up to more than 600.

Colonel Hussein said that next year, the number of cruise ships is expected to increase as it reaches up to four ships per day during the season.

“Most of the cruise ships are coming from Europe and they stop here to load or unload passengers or tourists.”

"In order to facilitate and speed up the procedures, we are checking on tourists before the arrival of the vessel. We check the names and documents before the arrival of the ship which allows easy passage of the tourists without stopping and without the need for any procedures inside the port.”

He added: “In addition to that, the new UAE rule that gives multiple-entry visas to cruise passengers has proved a boost to the sector in this season.”

The rule, which took effect last year, allows cruise tourists to get a multiple-entry visa for all the UAE ports in their itinerary for Dh200. Tourists can enter the UAE through any of its airports, continue on a cruise out of its ports, and come back to the UAE on the same visa.

"The number of tourist will certainly increase because of the reduced hassle and lower costs. Though the procedure to get such a visa remains the same, it is now simplified as passengers can get it in one step, and for travellers from the Indian subcontinent, it will be cheaper," he said.

He added that passengers from 46 countries who can enter the UAE without the need for prior Visa and that number was formerly 33 countries. The increase in the number of countries contributed to the increase of vessels sailing into UAE waters," he said.

Colonel Hussein added that the ship movements in Dubai ports, arrivals and departures reached in 2014 a total of 59,197 with increase of 14 per cent from the year 2013.

The GDRFA also dealt with 402 conveyances through Dubai ports during 2014 while the total number of tourist arrivals through Dubai Ports in 2014 reached 85,469.

The number of arrivals and departures was 185,450 and 187,473 tourists traveling in 2013 and 2014. While in the years 2012 and 2013 there were 126,534 arrivals and 128,588 departures.

It is expected that the number of tourists traveling at the end of the current season of 2015 will reach 559,000 tourists, up 13 per cent e from last year.

The figures are in line with the forecast as Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing expects the emirate to receive 600,000 cruise tourists by 2016 with new cruise liners coming to region.

Captain Ahmed Isaac, head of passports control section at GDRFA at Port Rashid, said “the port is so busy that we are working 24 hours in ports to finalise public transactions.”

He added that the staff completes at least 2000 transactions for each ship including the ship’s crew and tourists on every trip.

Capt. Ahmed said that in Port Rashid the Terminal 3’s  Hamdan bin Mohammed building receives passengers 24 hours seven days a week and is equipped with the best technology to speed up the procedures and there are 80 counters in the departure section alone, adding that the Dubai’s Mina Rashid Cruise Terminal can handle seven cruise vessels simultaneously. The terminal can processes 14,000 passengers a day.

Capt. Ibrahim Abdullah Al Saadi, head of Ship Crew Visa Section at GDRFA at Port Rashid, said the section issues sailors entry visa for 96 hours and from the beginning of this year till March this year the sections issued 3,324 sailors visas and the number of sailors visas in Port Rashid has increased during the three months from 3,020 sailors visa through the first quarter of 2013 and 3,195 visa sailors during the first quarter of 2014, adding up to 8,912 through the first quarter of 2015.

Khaled Khairallah Mohammed, security first officer at Port Rashid, spoke on the security of Terminal 3 that at peak times there are more than four ships with more 7000 passengers.