Cruise Dubai has plans to expand

Just under one year ago the Dubai Cruise Terminal was officially opened but already there are plans to expand

In 2010 Dubai handled 390,000 passengers and numbers are expected to increase almost two fold by 2015. New facilities have been announced that will extend the terminals capabilities accepting up to five ships at any one time

Hamad M. Bin Mejren, executive director of Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said: "Cruise tourists are becoming an increasingly important part of Dubai's tourism industry.”

Richard J Vogel, of TUI, said average expenditure per passenger per day is estimated at about £100 including shore excursions and souvenirs. "With 2,000 people on each cruise ship, it's a very good business for the local economy. The main challenge is that most of the ports are not 100 per cent focused on cruise ships," said Vogel. "We don't have cruise port facilities as developed as the ones in the Caribbean or the Mediterranean. This is something which will be developed in the next year or so."

Dubai is an ever increasing destination that people seem to flock too, it makes perfect sense to expand the port’s capabilities to allow more ships to dock at one time, this in turn will increase revenue massively for the country as a whole