Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — ABU Dhabi is going under rapid enhancements to become a great tourist destination within few years. One of the unique tourist destinations in Abu Dhabi is Cruise ships which is considered the first and only one in the entire region. Saeed Al-Dhaheri, Cruise sector and City Tour Development Section Manager at the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, was on an official visit to Saudi Arabia to promote cruise tourism in Abu Dhabi in the GCC market. The conference was held on Oct. 10 in Hyatt Regency Riyadh.

“Today is our first road show in GCC market. We just finished a conference in Jeddah and today in Riyadh and we will continue in Kuwait tomorrow. We currently target the GCC market,” he told the Saudi Gazette.

He added that cruise sector is one the fastest growing investments in Abu Dhabi’s strategic plan for tourism. “Our cruise ships all operate in winter season. We have three cruise ships and they all will start operating from this November till March,” he noted.

The Abu Dhabi cruise sector started in 2006 with 32,000 passengers. Then more attention was given to make the cruise business gain more success. “A few years later, we announced the terminal cruise where passengers can hand over their luggage to the airlines office and can get it when they are back home,” he said.

This year, there was a significant step taken to improve the cruise business in Abu Dhabi. “We specified a beach in Sir Bani Yas Island for the cruise passengers only. The experience is extremely unique and is going to be unforgettable for all our tourists, especially the GCC tourists. The cruise ship parks in the sea, then the passengers take safety boats to the beach in the island. In the first year of implementing this, we got 39 calls to the island. Last year, we had 345,000 passengers. We have a strategic plan to increase the number of the cruise visitors to half million by 2020,” he added.

When asked about the top nationalities who take part in the cruise, he said “most of them are from Germany, UK and other European countries. This idea is considered totally new to the GCC tourists. I believe this explains the low percentage of the GCC cruise visitors. They are only 5%, including 3% Saudis.”

Each cruise has a variety of different sites to visit. One cruise offers a trip of 9 to 12 days. With every tour, the tourist visits more than 7 cities. With every city, they can stop for a day and arrange with tour operators hired by the cruise company and enjoy the best tourist destinations ever. One of the cruises tours the entire region and makes three calls to India and a call to Singapore. Another cruise tours around the GCC areas such as Muscat and Bahrain. One of the cruises can accommodate 1,500 passengers up to 4,500. It is a huge project where it offers all passengers’ safety, joy and memorable experience. “Every cruise also offers interesting activities that is suitable for everyone such as cinema, theatre, gym, sports activities, swimming pools and spa. It has additional services that compete with 5-star hotels,” he remarked.

Al-Dhaheri emphasized that the charge of the cruise is very affordable “if tourists buy packages. That will save lots of their money. We also have a discount from 10-15% for GCC tourists.”

Sultan Almansoori, the GCC Country manager at Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, said Abu Dhabi is currently promoting tourism in Abu Dhabi through intense marketing campaigns. “We have cooperation with Saudi travel agencies, tour operators to increase the percentage of our Saudi tourists in Abu Dhabi. We also plan to extend their average stay from 2-3 days to reach a week.“

Abu Dhabi is also cooperating with Dubai to have all our activities. So all tourists can visit them both. “Abu Dhabi is currently planning to become a destination where it gathers history, culture, entertainment to enrich the experience of our tourists,” he added.

He emphasized that they design packages especially for Saudi individuals and families. "For each vacation or holiday, we design packages in cooperation with concerned bodies to attract tourists from Saudi Arabia. We do not want them to miss such an unforgettable experience," he concluded.