The COVID-19 pandemic kept a lot of things at bay and tourism is something that was missed a lot by many, across the globe. But as the pandemic situation relaxes, cruise tourism is set to come back to Abu Dhabi.

Cruise ships have been an absent sight in the capital for the past year and a half. The pandemic had put a pause to the traditional Abu Dhabi cruise season, which usually runs from October to May.

Before the pandemic, cruise ships provided a hub for leisure cruises was a booming business.

But now, Abu Dhabi is all set to welcome cruise ships starting September 1, according to an announcement by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT).

Cruise liners will be welcomed back into Abu Dhabi, where passengers will be allowed to disembark, providing they are fully vaccinated.

While few cruises have been braving the seven seas during the ongoing global health crisis, the majority of them have been restricted from docking and disembarking passengers in Abu Dhabi due to the strict public health protection measures in the UAE.

During 2020, cruise ships were identified as coronavirus transmission hotspots, and passengers on several liners were forced to quarantine on board and offshore, because of the number of cases aboard.

In the year 2019, over 11.35 million international visitors came to experience the many and varied wonders of Abu Dhabi, roughly 518,000 (about 5 percent) of those, came via 193 individual cruise calls.