Dubai Opens Cruise Ship Terminal, Names Costa Liner

* New terminal aims to boost cruise visitors to Dubai


Stocks|Bonds * Costa Cruises to operate new liner from DubaiDUBAI Feb 23 (Reuters) - Dubai opened a new cruise ship
terminal on Tuesday with the naming of an Italian ocean liner
that will operate cruises from this Gulf Arab tourism hub. "Six-seven years ago, we had 10,000 (cruise ship) travelers
. In 2009, this figure rose to 263,000 sea passengers, and we
expect an increase in the coming years," Hamad bin Mejren,
executive director of business tourism at the Dubai Department
of Tourism, told Reuters. The number of cruise ship passengers visiting Dubai, also a
regional trade and business centre, is expected to rise 35
percent in 2010, he said. The terminal, which can accommodate four cruise ships,
hosted the naming of the Italian vessel Costa Deliziosa on
Tuesday, in what organisers said was the first naming of a
cruise liner in the region. The Costa Deliziosa, with a capacity for 2,800 passengers,
is the latest vessel of the Italian cruise company Costa, a
unit of Carnival (CCL.L) (CCL.N), the world's largest cruise
operator. The liner, whose interior design combines traditional
Arabic and modern Italian styles, will offer cruises from
Dubai. Costa Deliziosa was moored at the terminal in Port Rashid
near Queen Elizabeth 2, which is waiting to be refurbished.
Dubai bought the QE2 ocean liner in 2007 for $100 million to
convert it into a luxury hotel. Istithmar World, the investment arm of debt-laden
conglomerate Dubai World [DBWLD.UL], said last month it had
scrapped plans to move the QE2 to South Africa, and the vessel
has been named among Dubai's assets and high-profile holdings
possibly up for sale.
(Reporting by Warda al-Jawahiry; Writing by Firouz Sedarat;
Editing by Toni Reinhold)