Carnival Corporation & plc celebrated the official opening of Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminal with Shamal Holding following their strategic partnership signed in 2018 to develop the new cruise port as the main hub for cruise tourism in Dubai.
The occasion was marked with a walk-through by Abdulla Binhabtoor, chief portfolio management officer of Shamal Holding, and several Carnival Corporation executives, including Giora Israel, senior vice president of global port and destination development for Carnival Corporation; Michael Thamm, group CEO of Costa Group and Carnival Asia; Felix Eichhorn, president of AIDA Cruises; Mario Zanetti, president of Costa Cruises; Michel Nestour, vice president of global port and destination development for the EuroMed & Arabian Gulf region at Carnival Corporation; and Torben Seidenschnur, director CEO office and strategic development at Costa Group.
With the arrivals of Costa Firenze and AIDAbella from the company's Italy-based Costa Cruises and Germany-based AIDA Cruises brands, the official opening was also marked by two passenger cruise ships visiting the Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminal for the first time, coinciding with the start of the cruise season and the ships' homeporting seasons from Dubai. The opening represents a significant milestone in realizing Dubai's goal of becoming the world's most visited city, underscored with the October launch of the highly popular Expo 2020 in Dubai.
Through Costa Cruises' partnership as a Gold Sponsor of the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, cruise guests are provided with exciting shore excursion options to explore the World Exhibition. As the region's first-ever dedicated, twin-terminal cruise port, Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminal is capable of accommodating two large cruise ships simultaneously.
The world-class facility spans over 120,000 square meters (nearly 1.3 million square feet) and includes two purpose-built terminal buildings that offer passengers and crew a safe, comfortable and seamless embarkation and disembarkation experience. The state-of-the-art terminals are equipped with four bespoke Seaport Passenger Boarding Bridges that can simultaneously support the full turnaround of the largest class of cruise ships in the industry.
