Dubai's cruise tourism industry is growing rapidly and it has a promising future in years to come, a senior official of Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) said. "The cruise tourism sector in the region is strong and its continued growth remains extremely promising, bringing with it huge economic and development opportunities,” Hamad bin Mejren, executive director of business tourism at DTCM, said on the sidelines of a conference at Cruise Shipping Miami. He said hundreds of jobs will be created in the industry in years to come and Dubai is proud to be taking the lead in ensuring the sustained development of this lucrative sector. "The Emirates once again proved its ability to steal the show and draw the attention of the world through its presence in Cruise Shipping Miami.” Cruise Shipping Miami is the industry's largest and most significant professional showcase held on March 11-14, 2013 at the Miami Beach Convention Centre, in the USA. This was the 13th year that DTCM has participated in the event, which featured more than 900 exhibiting companies from 123 countries and attracted well over 11,000 attendees. Dubai is the home port for five international cruise liner operators, namely TUI Cruises, MSC, RCCL, Costa Cruises, and AIDA, which operate regular weekly itineraries from Dubai and used to take Dubai as a hub for their winter operations. In 2011, the emirate hosted 396,554 cruise tourists, a number which increased to 407,825 in 2012. In order to cater to the increasing demand, the overall port facility has been expanded and cruises currently operates from three facilities, spanning over 20,000 square metres, on a pier stretching 1,900 metres, at which up to six cruise ships can be accommodated at one time. Further expansion is anticipated by 2014 and projections place the number of cruise ships expected to call on Dubai at 120 annually by 2015, carrying 450,000 passengers. There are expansion plans to Dubai's cruise ship facilities in collaboration with Dubai Ports World. Speaking on the occasion, Helal Saeed Al Marri, director-general of Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), said: "DTCM has made excellent use of the opportunities afforded by this premier event to increase its exposure in the international cruise arena, as Cruise Shipping Miami is well known to attract the broadest range of industry players within the calendar of the world's major cruise conferences”. "The department has also strived to fully utilise the opportunity to meet with influential cruise line executives, expert conference speakers, and executives from CLIA and FCCA cruise associations in order to promote Dubai's burgeoning cruise industry,” he added. Representatives from Dubai Cruise Tourism met with top executives from TUI Cruises, MSC, RCCL, Costa Cruises and many more cruise line operators to promote Dubai as a destination of choice for cruise tourism and to convince these operators to take Dubai as a hub for their cruise operations in the region. From Khaleej Times