The 2018-19 maritime tourism cruise season set see a 115% increase, says NTC

Over the last few years, Qatar has been carefully building up its image as a great destination for maritime tourists.

The formal opening of the Hamad Port added to Qatar’s attractiveness as an easily accessible tourist spot. The official 2018-19 cruise season began with a bang on October 2, with the arrival of the first cruise ship at the Doha Port.

Qatar’s newly formed National Tourism Council (NTC) has said that it expects the new season to be significantly busier than the previous ones.

The NTC said it was expecting around 43 cruise ships to come to Qatar, carrying about 140,000 holidaymakers, roughly constituting a 115% increase in traffic, reported Gulf Times.

The cruise season, which began last month, is expected to last until May, 2019.

The NTC said that this season will see the launch of 10 new cruise ships that will visit Doha for the first time. This will include the world famous cruise ship Queen Mary 2, which is more than 345M long and can accommodate around 4,000 passengers.

This year, Qatar received two giant cruise ships together for the first time and it is indicative of Qatar’s growing clout as a hot touristic destination. Two mega ships are expected to arrive in Qatar together at least on five more occasions, reported Qatar Tribune.

Maritime tourism in Qatar has been showing a steady increase in recent years. In the 2017-18 season, 22 cruise ships, carrying more than 65,000 visitors, anchored at the Doha Port. It was an increase of 39% over the previous season.

The NTC expects the number of tourists to touch 200,000 by 2019-20 and breach the 300,000 mark by the 2021-22 season.

Qatar has made great inroads in the field of tourism, becoming the most accessible destination in the Middle East and the eighth best in the world.