Qatar Tourism, Celestyal Cruises to operate two cruises across the Gulf for Winter 2025 cruise season

Published: 30 April 2025

NT Bureau
Doha

Qatar Tourism and Visit Qatar marked their participation at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2025 in Dubai, one of the world’s leading travel and tourism events in the region, by announcing two major developments on the opening day.

Qatar Tourism, in partnership with Celestyal Cruises, announced the dual-ship deployment of the MS Celestyal Journey and the MS Celestyal Discovery for the Winter 2025 cruise season.

The announcement was made in the presence of Eng. Abdulaziz Ali Al-Mawlawi, CEO of Visit Qatar, Mr. Omar Al Jaber, Chief of Tourism Development Sector, Mr. Chris Theophilides, CEO of Celestyal Cruises.

As part of this partnership, the MS Celestyal Journey will operate its cruises across the Arabian Gulf with Doha serving as its main homeport, while the MS Celestyal Discovery will make regular calls at Doha Port as part of its regional itineraries. Together, the two ships are expected to bring more than 25 calls and over 40,000 visitors to Doha during the upcoming season.

This expansion builds on the success of Celestyal’s previous season, which saw over 14,000 passengers arrive in Qatar’s capital, and marks a major step in enhancing Doha’s growing stature as a premier cruise hub.

In addition, Visit Qatar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Huawei, the multinational technology corporation. The agreement, signed by Eng. Abdulaziz Ali Al-Mawlawi, CEO of Visit Qatar Visit Qatar, and Bin Li (Bruce), President of Huawei, will see both entities collaborate on an integrated marketing strategy targeting China, Europe, and the GCC.