Dubai Police launch Sail Safe app for cruise tourists visiting the city

Dubai Police have launched a new app exclusively for cruise tourists boarding cruise ships in the UAE or making port calls in Dubai on cruises to the country.

Sail Safe is intended to give passengers a direct emergency response line to the police, while also providing them with information about conditions on land that might affect their shore excursions and independent exploration.

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“Considering that Dubai has become a leading cruise destination, the Dubai Police ensure that the latest innovative technologies are used to ensure people’s safety, security and happiness,” said Major-General Ahmed Mohammed bin Thani, Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Ports Affairs.

All cruise passengers have to do is register their itineraries and intended port calls in the app.

Apart from the safety feature, the app is also intended to serve an information resource for cruise tourists to learn more about the cruise destinations they’re visiting in the Arabian Gulf, with user-friendly maps and independent exploration tools, such as dive sites and other attractions.

The initiative will certainly put cruise tourists at greater ease when exploring independently in Dubai, but is by-and-large unnecessary in a country ranked the second-safest in the world by UK-based Which? Travel magazine.

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According to Which? The UAE ranks second only to Iceland when it comes to risk of crime for tourists, from pickpocketing and armed assault to homicide.

Which? Travel ranked 20 countries based on data produced by the World Economic Fund (for crime rates), the World Risk Report (for likelihood of major natural disasters), the NHS Fit for Travel website (for health risks), and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) assessment of terrorism risk levels.

“Of the 20 holiday destinations that we looked at, Iceland, unsurprisingly, came out as the safest country,” the magazine said. “The UAE and Singapore were also considered extremely safe, with Spain the next safest of the six popular European holiday destinations that we looked at.”

For context, Iceland is an island nation of roughly 330,000 people, while the UAE has a population of 9-million, the vast majority of whom are expatriates from all over the world, along with 16-million annual tourists (almost a million of whom are cruise tourists).