Poor weather delays Dubai cruise passengers

Adverse weather conditions across the UAE with highly strong winds and rough sea waves delayed the departure of two luxury cruise ships with about 4,000 passengers from Dubai, tourism chiefs said on Wednesday. The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) said the weather is expected to return to normal in time for the arrival of four passenger cruise ships on Friday. The UAE has witnessed extremely cold conditions in the past few days but the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) has predicted weather conditions will be back to normal in the next two or three days. Temperatures in all corners of the UAE are the lowest for some time due to the cold north-westerly winds which have resulted in rough to very rough seas. Hamad bin Mejren, DTCM executive director business tourism, said the unforeseen bad weather conditions delayed the departures of the Costa Favolosa and MSC Lirica by between 24 and 48 hours. DTCM, which manages and operates Dubai Cruise Terminals, said it ensured that services were provided to passengers and crew to go onshore and explore the city and its tourist attractions. Dubai Cruise Terminal will see a line-up of four cruise ships - Aidablu, Costa Favolosa, MSC Lirica and Arcadia - on January 27. Between the four ships, the Dubai Cruise Terminal is expected to handle over 15000 passengers. Dubai's cruise passenger figures have quadrupled over the last five years and DTCM expects ship calls and cruise passenger numbers to increase to 135 ships with 475,000 passengers in 2012, growing to 180 ships with 625,000 passengers in 2015.