By IANS
Dubai : Dubai will start work on a second cruise terminal within a year to handle the expected doubling of cruise tourists by 2010, according to the executive director of Dubai Cruise Terminal, WAM news agency reported Monday.
“Dubai will have a second terminal in the near future and the near future will not be longer than one year,” Awad Seghayer Al Ketbi said Sunday. The plan is to be announced either in January or February, he said.
Al Ketbi added that the passenger handling capacity of the new facility would be similar to that of the existing six-year-old cruise terminal in Port Rashid and it would be located in the same area.
Cruise tourism in the Persian Gulf reaches its peak during the December-March period as thousands of European and American tourists rush to the warm climate of the Gulf from the freezing cold at home.
Dubai is expecting 165,000 cruise tourists during the 2007-08 season. The number is expected to exceed 200,000 in the 2008-09 season and 350,000 in the next winter, according to the Department of tourism and commerce marketing (DTCM).