MSC Cruises looks to expand Oman shore excursion offerings at STC Global

MSC Cruises is interested in expanding the range of shore excursions on offer to passengers in Oman, where it calls regularly during the annual winter cruise season in the Arabian Gulf.

Officials from MSC Cruises and the Sultanate of Oman met on the sidelines of Seatrade Cruise Global to discuss ways to expand the cruise line’s shore excursion offerings in the country.

MSC Cruises is the market leader in the Middle East cruise sector, with two ships homeporting in Dubai annually between November and March each year for the region’s winter cruise season.

On all roundtrip sailings from Dubai, MSC Cruises calls weekly in Muscat and Khasab in Oman. During the most recent 2022/23 cruise season, the cruise line deployed the largest ship in its fleet to the region.

MSC World Europa is not only the largest cruise ship operated by MSC, but is also the largest cruise ship ever to homeport in Dubai and the wider Middle East.

“MSC Cruises is the largest cruise operator in the Middle East and we continue to develop our range of shore excursions for guests visiting the region,” the cruise line said in a statement on Twitter.

“At [Seatrade Cruise Global] we met with senior officials from the Sultanate of Oman to discuss additional land-based trips in the capital Muscat and from the coastal port city of Khasab,” it added.

MSC Cruises alone accounts for around 500,000 of the almost 1 million cruise tourists that cruise from Dubai annually and recently expanded its list of homeports to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where MSC Bellissima homeported during the most recent season.

Later this year, MSC Cruises will be deploying its Meraviglia-plus class cruise ship MSC Virtuosa and the smaller MSC Opera to Dubai for the 2023/24 cruise season.

Seatrade Cruise Global is held annually in Miami, Florida and is the largest industry event of its kind, with more than 500 exhibitors from every sector (tech, entertainment, health, safety & environment and more) coming together to present the latest innovations in cruise products and services.

An important aspect of the industry is also the Conference program, which this year focused on the cruise industry’s recovery from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought the global cruise business to a standstill for much of 2020.