360,000 cruise passengers visit Qatar

Growing tourism sector aims for 450,000 passengers in 2025/26 season

Qatar has achieved a record cruise season in 2024/2025 with 87 ships calling at Doha port, an increase of 19% on the previous year.

Five additional ships made their first calls to Doha's port, The Terminal, boosting cruise visitor numbers to more than 360,000, with 10% of those beginning or ending their journey in Doha, according to Qatar Tourism and port authority Mwani Qatar.

Putting that into perspective, Qatar welcomed a record five million visitors in 2024, meaning cruise numbers represent around 7% of total visitors, underscoring the importance of the sector to the country's tourism strategy.

What's more, there was a notable diversification in international cruise lines, with 11 different operators choosing Doha as a destination.

Hussain Ahmad Al Maqeef, Executive Vice President of Commercial at Mwani Qatar Capt, said such success was down to the state-of-the-art terminal and seamless coordination with partners across the public and private sectors.

Looking ahead, the 2025/2026 cruise season is expected to grow further, with 130 cruise calls and an estimated 450,000 visitors, according to Qatar Tourism.

Contributing to this growth is Celestyal Cruises, which is set to deploy two ships to Doha for the 2025/2026 season, following a successful inaugural season in the Arabian Gulf, where bookings exceeded targets by 35%.

Celestyal Journey will operate across the Arabian Gulf from its homeport in Doha, while Celestyal Discovery will call at the city’s port as part of its regional sailings from Abu Dhabi. The ships are expected to bring 40,000 visitors to Qatar, nearly triple last season's visitor numbers at 14,000.

Doha will also be a port of call for MSC Euribia this winter following MSC's launch of 3, 4 and 7-night Arabian Gulf itineraries.

Set to accelerate the growth of the sector in Qatar and throughout the GCC, Jacobs Media, owner of Dubai-based Connecting Travel, launched Connections Cruise Arabia at ATM, a two-day event taking place in March 2026 that will bring together more than 300 senior leaders and influencers from across the global cruise and travel ecosystem to shape the future of cruise.

For more information, visit www.qatartourism.com and for all the latest cruise news, bookmark www.connectingtravel.com/cruise

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE 76-PAGE CONNECTING TRAVEL INSIGHT REPORT TODAY