Abu Dhabi's cruise terminal to open next year

Construction contract for the new cruise terminal in Mina Zayed Abu Dhabi is expected to be announced soon after the selection of design next month as the emirate plans to open terminal in the second half of 2015, said a senior official of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Cultural Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi).

Speaking to Emirates 24l7, Noura Al Dhaheri, Leisure Products Development Manager at Abu Dhabi Tourism & Cultural Authority, said design for the new cruise terminal in Mina Zayed will be selected in mid-April and then construction contract will be issued soon.

Noura was speaking in Dubai on Sunday during the announcement of cruise firm Royal Caribbean International returning to the Gulf in 2015-16 winters. Royal Caribbean’s Splendour of the Seas is scheduled to dock at its home port of Dubai followed by calls to Oman’s capital of Muscat and Khasab along with Abu Dhabi.

“We’ll award construction contract soon because we want Splendour of the Seas to be the first ship to dock at the new state-of-the-art terminal,” she said.

TCA Abu Dhabi Director-General Mubarak Al Muhairi said in December last year that Mina Zayed had been selected as permanent site for cruise terminal. In the meantime, TCA Abu Dhabi has also upgraded and expanded the temporary terminal to include a range of passenger services.

The UAE capital, according to Noura Al Dhaheri, received 196,000 cruise tourists in 2013 and expects numbers to cross 200,000 this year with new vessels docking at the Abu Dhabi ports.

Royal Caribbean International, the largest global cruise line, on Sunday, March 23, announced its return to the Gulf in winter 2015-16 and is scheduled to dock in its home port of Dubai followed by calls to Muscat and Abu Dhabi.

German cruise liner Phoenix Reisen arrived at Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed Port in January 2014, bringing around 1,200 German tourists to the emirate.

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