Costa Cruises has marked the start of its third season of cruising around the Gulf from Dubai by announcing new ship Costa Luminosa, launching in June 2009, will be homeported in the Middle East port in winter 2009/10.
That's quite a commitment given this is still such a new market. Usually, somewhere new has to put up with the smaller, older ships for quite some time, until they have proved themselves.
I guess Costa feels Dubai has already done that. When they launched Dubai cruises in winter 06/07, they had one 1,680-passenger ship and carried 44,000. Last winter they put on a second ship and carried 70,000.
This winter there are also two ships - the 1,680-passenger Costa Classica and the bigger 2,394-passenger Costa Victoria - and they expect to carry 100,000 passengers.
The numbers are made up of Europeans, including Brits, but also increasingly passengers from China and the Far East.
But maybe also Costa is making sure it is in a good position to head off competition from Royal Caribbean International, which is positioning Brilliance of the Seas in Dubai in January 2010, also to operate cruises around the Gulf.
The 92,700-ton Costa Luminosa carries 2,828 passengers and will have all the mod-cons you expect of a new ship including 772 balcony cabins, a luxurious spa, 4D cinema and Grand Prix driving simulator.
Jane Archer
