Dubai’s cruise terminal at Mina Rashid has more than doubled the number of cruise tourists it receives since it opened in four years ago.
Hamdan bin Mohammed Cruise Terminal, managed by DP World, welcomed more than 625,000 holiday-makers in 2016-17 season, up from 320,000 cruise tourists that arrived in Dubai in the 2013-14 season.
The number of cruise visitors is expected to top 700,000 in the 2018-2019 season.
Since the terminal opened in 2014, some 1.9 million cruise tourists visited Dubai on board 489 ships. Cruise ship calls have increased by 68 per cent from 93 in the 2013-2014 season to 156 in 2016-2017.
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The emirate aims to draw one million cruise tourists a year from 2020 onwards.
Key to this growth is the cruise terminal that is set to be the largest terminal in the world - capable of handling 18,000 passengers a day.
Currently, the world’s largest cruise port is in Miami, which welcomed nearly 5 million cruise passengers in 2016.
"We are committed to providing facilities that are the best in the world and create a truly luxurious cruise experience catering to the tastes and sophistication of visitors," said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, group chairman and chief executive of DP World, chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation.
Dubai’s cruise tourism market has grown rapidly over the past four seasons as the city is becoming a choice destination for cruise enthusiasts from Europe and the US.