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Dubai's Meraas to build new cruise terminals

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 16 September 2017 16 September 2017

Meraas has announced that Dubai Harbour will have a second cruise terminal in addition to the one already revealed in January 2017. Dubai Harbour will be the first cruise destination to build two terminals simultaneously which when completed will accommodate 1,200,000 passengers annually.

The announcement was made during Cityscape Global 2017, where visitors have been able to see the upcoming destination for the first time through a model at the Meraas stand located at S2F10 in Saeed Hall 2. The addition of a second terminal is intended to build on Dubai’s reputation as a leading tourism destination, while capitalising on strong growth in the cruise industry globally. Industry data suggest that over 40 million people will travel by cruise annually by 2030, up 40 percent from 24 million in 2017.

His Excellency Abdulla Al Habbai, Group Chairman at Meraas, said: “Dubai Harbour connects some of Dubai’s most vibrant neighbourhoods and reflects a culture of innovation envisioned by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, for the emirate. The project also reaffirms our commitment to expanding on Dubai’s rich maritime heritage and tourism profile, while supporting the continued diversification of the national economy.

By creating a world-class destination that appeals to people around the globe, Dubai Harbour represents an opportunity to achieve economies of scale and drive growth in the maritime tourism sector. It will also help maintain Dubai’s status among the world’s top tourism destinations for generations to come.”

Each terminal will be approximately 14,000 square metres in size with one single apron of 900-metres. While other ports have multiple terminals, none have so far built more than one at any given time. Meanwhile, in addition to serving the cruise ship industry, Dubai Harbour will feature the largest marina in the MENA region. Once complete, the marina will have 1,100-berths capable of accommodating some of the world’s biggest private yachts.

Dubai Harbour was officially unveiled by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai in January 2017, and will be developed by Meraas. The masterplan for the unique waterfront destination extends over 20 million square feet and includes an 875,000 square-foot shopping mall, an events arena, luxury residences, restaurants, cafes, hotels and a yacht club. It will also feature the Dubai Lighthouse, an architectural marvel stretching 135 metres into the sky with an observation deck offering stunning panoramic views.

Dubai Harbour will also integrate Skydive Dubai, Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) and Logo Island into a single integrated community. Ground has been broken and 130,000 square metres of land has been reclaimed. The contractor for the cruise terminal will be appointed once the land for the terminal is ready, with Dubai Habour being constructed in phases.

Located on King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Street, between Jumeirah Beach Residence and Palm Jumeirah in an area also known as Mina Al Seyahi, Dubai Harbour will boast an advanced multi-modal transport infrastructure comprising an excellent road network in addition to air and sea connectivity. There will also be a futuristic public transport system, water stations, pedestrian bridge, jogging and cycling tracks. The new development will offer unparalleled views of Dubai’s skyline, the clear waters of the Arabian Gulf and ‘Ain Dubai’, the world’s tallest and largest observation wheel.

The project will create synergies with some of Dubai’s other iconic projects located in the area, including Palm Jumeirah and Meraas’ modern, family-oriented island neighbourhood at Bluewaters.

Antigua open for business – excursions, tour operators, restaurants and hotels are operating

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 14 September 2017 14 September 2017

Antigua is back to offering excursions and adventures across Antigua. Popular activities in Antigua, from Stingray City to zip-lining adventures to safari land tours to cruises, sea circumnavigation and snorkeling tours are available once again. Tour operators have re-opened after Hurricane Irma and are providing visitors with new experiences.

Restaurants and bars have re-opened including popular beach establishments such as Beach Limers, Coconut Grove, Sheer Rocks, Turners, Darkwood Beach Bar and Restaurant, Trappas, Le Bistro, and the over 150 dining options to choose from in Antigua.

Close to 2000 of the country’s hotel room stock will be available by the end of October for the start of the peak winter season following traditional summer upgrades and renovations throughout resorts. Some of these resorts include Cocobay, Jumby Bay, Curtain Bluff, Carlisle Bay, Hawksbill by Rex Resorts, Heritage Quay Hotel, St. James’s Club, The Inn at English Harbor, and Nonsuch Bay. The first properties opening post-upgrades are Pineapple Beach Club and Blue Waters Resort and Spa opening on September 14th and September 21st respectively. Hotels and resorts that are open year-round are happily welcoming and hosting visitors to Antigua.

Antigua’s new, state-of-the-art, VC Bird International Airport and cruise ship berths are welcoming passengers from across the US, Canada, UK and Europe, and Caribbean.

Intercruises completes phase 1 development of SafeAshore

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 06 September 2017 06 September 2017

Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services, a global business offering ground handling and port agency services to the ocean and river cruise industry, has completed the development of SafeAshore, a new system designed to help further enhance the safety of shore excursion guests and guides. Following five months of development, trials were successfully carried out in August 2017 during shore excursions in Marseille, where the system is live and being used by the local Intercruises team.

SafeAshore enables Intercruises and cruise line teams to track tour groups’ locations at any time and provides a single and secure communication channel for instant messaging between guides and the Intercruises team. The system is also pre-loaded with information to aid incident response, including local emergency phone numbers and a map highlighting nearby ‘safe places’, such as police stations or hospitals.

“Safety is a priority for Intercruises and SafeAshore will enhance our ability to respond to incidents during our shore excursions, enabling more timely, informed and efficient incident management. This is an innovative, yet simple solution that has been developed based on the real incident experiences of our own teams and in response to concerns raised in recent years by cruise lines, ports and destinations. A huge thanks to our guides and the local Marseille team in completing the successful SafeAshore trials.” Said Olga Piqueras, Managing Director, Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services.

SafeAshore is a two-part system, consisting of a mobile and web application. Guides install and log into the SafeAshore mobile application, entering basic details specific to their tour to make it active. Active tours are visible to Intercruises and cruise line teams on the web application, with real-time locations displayed on a map. SafeAshore runs in the background on guides’ phone and constantly sends location data, which is recorded on the web application and stored for reporting purposes. Once a tour is completed, the guide logs out of SafeAshore and the application remains dormant, no longer collecting data, until the next login.

“I was happy to be involved in this project and see the value the system can have during an emergency and also in everyday operations, such as informing other guides or the port team of heavy traffic.” Said a guide from Marseille involved in the SafeAshore trials.

SafeAshore is being updated with information for other destinations as availability of the system is expanded across France and the Mediterranean during 2017, with implementation in other regions planned for 2018.

CLIA Reports on a productive Port and Destination Summit

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 06 September 2017 06 September 2017

The Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) hosted its fourth Port and Destination Summit on 5th September. Over 260 international partners of CLIA Executive Partner Program, including 50 cruise line executives gathered at the Hamburg Messe and Congress GmbH Hamburg, one day before the Seatrade Europe Cruise & River Convention official opening.

The objective of the Summit, to generate concrete business discussions between decision makers from ports, destinations and the broad cruise industry’s supply chain, was met. After a general opening session hosted by Cindy d’Aoust, President and CEO of CLIA, and Bo Larsen, Senior Vice President Strategic Partnerships, CLIA, nine different breakout sessions engaged all participants. Driven by field experts, the sessions covered various topics: safe, secure and sustainable cruise shipping; shore excursion planning and management during peak demand; cruise destination marketing; cruise port infrastructure and its impact on the destination; berthing allocation policy; the future role of the port agent and the importance of tourist guides, ambassadors of destinations.

Present in many discussion panels, Giora Israel, Senior Vice President, Port and Destination Development, Carnival Corp. & Plc reported back on a variety of topics covered during the one day event: “The sessions were concrete and practical for all delegates. We could share our combined efforts towards a sustainable and growing industry in need of efficient and creative itinerary planning. We also underlined the importance of our port agents and the pivotal role of guides at all our port of calls. We are always adding new destinations, so we shared our views on the importance of timely destination marketing”.

Elisabetta de Nardo, Director Port and Destination Operations, Silversea Cruises & Chair of CLIA Europe’s Port and Destination Committee, also commented: “This year we noted even greater participation and dialogue from the CLIA cruise line members and Executive Partners. The industry knowledge is increasingly shared, creating business opportunities and a variety of solutions for participants. For cruise lines, the guest experience in a non-negotiable element and our partners’ understanding of our goals is only beneficial to all industry players”.

More partners commented on the benefits of the Summit; ‘a time-saver through best practice sharing’ for the Port of Dover with ‘rich and invaluable content’ for Cruise Newfoundland Labrador, a Canadian marketing destination company.

The Port and Destination Summit created positive networking opportunities and facilitated one-to-one pre-booked business sessions with cruise lines decision makers, to generate further business openings for CLIA members.

French Mediterranean ports exhibiting together at Seatrade Europe

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Ports & Destinations Ports & Destinations; Published: 06 September 2017 06 September 2017

For the very first time at Seatrade Cruise Europe, all the French Med Ports are exhibiting together on the same stand (608) with a surface area of 72m 2 .

A new logo has been launched to help identify the French Med Ports : their strategic goal is to help promote together the navigation area of south of France and increase the cruise call activity in each of the French Med ports.

The stand brings together the following cruise clubs / ports (22 ports in total):

– Var Provence Cruise Club (Fréjus, St-Raphaël, St-Tropez, Le Lavandou, Sanary)
– The ports of Toulon bay (Toulon and La-Seyne-sur-Mer)
– French Riviera Cruise Club (Villefranche, Nice, Cannes, Antibes)
– Marseille Provence Cruise Club (Marseille and Cassis)
– Port of Sete Cruise Club (Sete)
– Corsica Cruise Club (Bastia, Calvi, Rousse Island, Saint-Florent)
– Ports of South Corsica (Ajaccio, Porto-Vecchio, Bonifacio, Propriano)

All French Med ports have expressed their wish to organize a special event during the exhibition: the installation of a bowling alley is planned alongside the stand (coordinated by OBUT), and an invitation is open for all delegates to come and play throughout the show. Two highlights are planned with a challenge-competition at 17:00 on 6 and 7 September, which will allow the lucky winners to win prizes (gourmet baskets provided by the French Med Ports).