The future stop on cruising’s itinerary: Saudi Arabia: Travel Weekly
Johanna Jainchill
Will Saudi Arabia be the following Cuba of cruising?
It is not often that a location earlier off-boundaries to Americans open its doors to tourism. The past case in point was Cuba, when the Obama administration relaxed 50-12 months-old travel limits that enabled cruising to the island to resume — to considerably fanfare and demand. People sailings would only function for a few many years prior to the Trump administration shut them down.
The most up-to-date new-cruise-desired destination buzz surrounds Saudi Arabia, which in 2019 created sweeping alterations to decades-old guidelines about who could enter the Kingdom and which had for several several years barred most American tourists.
Saudi has opened alone to leisure travelers as component of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s bold Eyesight 2030 program to diversify the nation’s oil-dominated economy. It launched a vacationer visa for travelers from dozens of international locations, such as the U.S. and most of Europe, and it comfortable what experienced been really demanding rules for girls, these as not owning to have a male chaperone to enter the region.
The kingdom also recognized Cruise Saudi, a publicly funded effort and hard work to establish ports, places and excursion selections to catch the attention of a lot more ships to its ports in the Pink Sea and Persian Gulf.
That effort and hard work is previously bearing fruit. MSC Cruises this week stated that one of its newest ships, the MSC Bellisima, this month will homeport in Jeddah, incorporating to its before system to foundation the MSC Magnifica in Jeddah, wherever it will supply seven-working day, Crimson Sea cruises through March. A 3rd ship, the MSC Virtuosa, will make weekly phone calls at Saudi Arabia’s Arabian Gulf port of Dammam from December by March throughout Center East cruises to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
Scenic Cruises also reported past 7 days that its luxury expedition vessel, the Scenic Eclipse, would homeport in Jeddah this thirty day period, launching a sequence of Pink Sea itineraries from July 17 to December 9. Glen Moroney, chairman of the Scenic Group, said that “Saudi Arabia will be just one of the most popular tourist places in coming years We are self-assured that this new period will mark the start off of a very long marriage with the desired destination and hope to be equipped to offer you extra sailings in the region in the coming seasons as the world begins to open up for worldwide travel.”
Shaun Ebelthite, the editor of Cruise Arabia On line, which phone calls alone the only blog about Middle Japanese and Africa cruising, stated the addition of Saudi Arabia gets rid of a crucial obstacle for the Middle East as a cruise desired destination, which he reported has often been a absence of ports on the Red Sea leg between Suez and Oman.
“This means that cruise ships sure for Dubai commit a total week to 10 days at sea, which would make the repositioning itinerary unappealing for most passengers,” Ebelthite claimed. “Owning Saudi Arabian ports accessible to get in touch with in will not only insert much more destinations and variety but will probably develop demand for cruises through the Purple Sea, as Saudi Arabia is these types of an evocative place for western holidaymakers.”
People considerations have been voiced by cruise executives at the 2017 Seatrade Center East Cruise Meeting. Ebelthite quoted Steven Young, then-vice president of port and shore functions for Carnival UK’s P&O Cruises and Cunard, expressing that “Cruise itineraries in between the Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf are port-lean, and the cruise places within just the Gulf call for larger diversity of shore excursion offerings to seriously make them stand out. The opening up of the Saudi cruise current market would really support in this regard.”
Ebelthite predicts that far more cruise traces and ships will comply with MSC’s direct.
“They’re going to almost certainly hold out to see how MSC gets on, but Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and the grand voyage strains like Cunard, Princess, Azamara and so on are possible to aspect Saudi ports calls and perhaps even departures in the near long run.”
He stated that the crucial Saudi internet sites these types of as Al Ahsa Oasis in Dammam, the ancient coral Old Town in Al Balad and Yanbu, which features prominently in the movie “Lawrence of Arabia,” will “will rapidly become important tourist hotspots.”
Certainly, for American cruisers, it appears like the following Cuba is inside reach.
