MUSCAT, APRIL 21 - Muscat’s Port Sultan Qaboos, on the cusp of its transformation into a waterfront tourism and leisure destination, welcomed the magnificent Mariner of the Seas cruise liner on its maiden visit to the Sultanate last week. The mega cruise ship — part of the Voyager-class liners of Royal Caribbean best known for its splendid ships and sumptuous cruises — made a day-long visit to Muscat. While at berth, officials from Marafi, a new subsidiary of ASYAD Group tasked with operating and management Port Sultan Qaboos, among other Omani ports, went on board to present the ship’s master with a commemorative plaque to mark the liner’s first-ever port visit to the Sultanate. A number of sister ships of Royal Caribbean made regular visits to Muscat, Salalah and Khasab.
The liner has a capacity to host in excess of 3,80 passengers, accommodated in over 1,500 staterooms. Complementing this number is a crew capacity of 1,200. Arriving from Kochi (South India), the visit of the Mariner of the Seas to the Sultanate will probably be its last in its present avatar. The 1,000-plus feet long vessel with a gross tonnage of 140,000 tonnes is due to undergo a major makeover at a shipyard in Cadiz, Spain, this summer. As part of the estimated $125 million overhaul, the liner will be fitted out with new air conditioning and electronic entertainment systems, as well as modern automation. Thereafter, the souped-up liner will be repositioned at Miami, where it will target millennials as its new clientele.
Growing numbers of new liners, as well as prestigious older carriers, are adding Muscat and other Omani ports to their itineraries during scheduled voyages through the region. This is reflected in the sizable numbers of cruise passenger arrivals being witnessed in recent years. An estimated 164,000 cruise tourists arrived by sea by the end of the winter cruise season in May 2017, according to figures issued by the Ministry of Tourism. Around 88 per cent are European travellers, with Germans made up a 28 per cent share of this figure. Port Sultan Qaboos is the main attraction for visiting liners, with Muscat the port of call for as many as 135 ships in 2015-2016, up from 109 in 2014-2015, the Ministry stated.
Conrad Prabhu
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