With India’s major cities up to four hours' flying distance from the main Middle East cruising hubs, the Indian source market holds huge potential for passengers joining a cruise in the region. Plus, ports on India's west coast are starting to provide an important add-on to itineraries originating in the Gulf.
With this in mind, Cruise Arabia—a unified partnership that brings together six GCC tourism authorities with the aim of promoting the region as a preferred winter destination for cruise travel—is looking to expand its reach to the Indian subcontinent and has started discussions with relevant tourism bodies, delegates were told on the last day of the Seatrade Middle East Cruise Forum 2016.
Spearheaded by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) in 2013, the Cruise Arabia membership currently includes Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi); Bahrain Tourism & Exhibitions Authority; Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA); Oman Ministry of Tourism and Qatar Tourism Authority.
Sharing Cruise Arabia’s growth plans, Hamad M Bin Mejren, svp, Stakeholders Department, Dubai Tourism, said: ‘Cruise Arabia has initiated discussions with the relevant ministry departments in India and we are looking to develop co-operation moving forward. The proximity of the Indian subcontinent is perfect for cruise tourism and we will work with cruise lines to identify itineraries originating from the Middle East for the 12- to 14-day duration trips in particular.’
Agreeing with Bin Mejren, Clare Ward, director, product & customer services, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, said: ‘India is hugely important to the UK market with strong historic links both from the UK and from this region. We know there will be infrastructural challenges but the cruise growth potential is huge.’
Chris Coates, commercial director Cruise & Maritime Voyages, confirmed he is looking at the region for potential winter deployment since it is stragetically placed to service the three markets CMV is targetting: UK, Germany and Australia. Whilst Coates said it's premature to give specifics, if CMV were to deploy a ship out of the Gulf, ‘We would likely go further afield to include Indian Ocean/subcontinent ports as well.’
Another line seriously considering placing a ship in the Arabian Gulf in winter is Pullmantur, reported Javier Rodríguez Sanchez, port operations, guest and travel services director. Steven Young, director port services and government affairs, P&O Cruises and Cunard, also confirmed the region is under serious consideration as a winter deployment option.
Christopher Allen, vp, global deployment & itinerary planning, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises, confirmed Celebrity, making its debut this winter, will be returning to homeport in the Gulf in 2017/18 and 2018/19. The three Royal brands will collectively chalk up around 100 Arabian calls this season, rising from five in 2014/15, and will make a record 29 calls in India this winter, some originating from the Gulf, Allen told Seatrade Cruise News.
Also proving fodder for discussion was Abu Dhabi’s intention to become the regional hub for ‘halal cruising.' The message was delivered by TCA Abu Dhabi during a panel session about source markets.
According to Mubarak Al Shamisi, director of Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau: ‘We have identified the halal cruising segment as a new source market to support our ambitions to grow Abu Dhabi’s cruise passenger numbers to over 800,000 by 2025. We believe our culture, heritage and product base has great appeal with the Muslim traveller and the expansion of this product mix into the cruise segment is a natural progression to attract Muslim passengers from our key cruise markets, and stimulate regional and home-grown demand for Abu Dhabi cruises.’
Abu Dhabi’s international cruise tourism passengers are predominantly sourced from Germany, United Kingdom and France, which have a combined Muslim population of more than nine million.
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