Thomson Cruises, which sailed its first ever Middle East cruise season out Dubai this year, has announced it will rebrand as Marella Cruises in October as part of its merger with TUI.

The re-branding of the cruise operator arm of the business will coincide with the larger holiday group ‘Thomson’ being re-branded as TUI.

The name Marella Cruises has not been positively received by loyal Thomson Cruises guests, but was likely chosen as it means “shining sea” in Celtic.

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Most importantly for Middle East cruisers, however, the newly re-branded Marella Cruises will be returning to Dubai to sail an Arabian Gulf cruise en-route to Asia.

The cruise line’s ship Thomson Discovery (to be rebranded as Marella Discovery) will cruise from Dubai when she is deployed to the Asian market, cruising out of Langkawi, Malaysia for an entire season.

Her Dubai cruise departure will include port of call in India, calling at Mumbai, Mangalore, Mormugao (Goa) and Cochin (Kerala) as well as Colombo (Sri Lanka).

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All of Thomson Cruises current fleet will be rebranded as the following: Marella Dream, Marella Celebration, Marella Discovery, Marella Discovery 2 and Marella Explorer, which launches next year.

Speaking at this year’s Abta Travel Convention in the Azores, Helen Caron, Distribution and Cruise Director said: “This is an incredibly exciting time for our business.”

“We’re really proud to offer an experience that guests can, and want to, come back to again and again and moving forward as Marella we’ve got brand new, modern additions to our fleet and more destinations, choice and experiences than ever before which really reflects our spirit of exploration and discovery within the new brand,” she added.