Ports & destinations
An amber light for Red Sea cruises
Though the eastern fl ank of the Arabian Peninsula has been a cruise hotspot for years, its western cousin Saudi Arabia has long rejected tourists of all kinds, let alone foreign cruise ships. But with the country’s rulers now eager to promote native tourism, that’s fi nally changing. Andrea Valentino talks to Shaun Ebelthite at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, and Achille Staiano, vice president global sales at MSC Cruises, to learn more about what the Italian operator has planned for Saudi Arabia, why this unexplored country is such a gem for history and nature-lovers alike – and whether the kingdom will soon be integrated into global cruising more broadly.
B
efore the oil derricks, the shopping malls, the Lamborghinis – even before the Saudi princes themselves – Jeddah was Arabia’s open curtain to the world. As long ago as the 700s, barely a century into the Muslim experiment, pilgrims flocked to the port on their way to the holy places of Mecca and Medina. By the turn of the millennium, the Fatimid caliphs had turned Jeddah into a lodestar for trade, buying pepper from India and selling frankincense to the Chinese. The Jeddans themselves became rich, building refined townhouses four storeys high, their windows framed by delicate wooden lattices, their courtyards cooled by fountains.
Jeddah is still Saudi Arabia’s second city. Yet over the last century, the ‘Bride of the Red Sea’ has seen the kingdom’s economic gravity move east, towards the oil fields in the desert that last year made the Saudis $49bn and accounted for 84% of their exports. But the energy boom can’t last forever. Even optimistic observers believe the bonanza will end in about two centuries – and that’s assuming forecasts about untapped supplies are even correct. Tipsy on the obscene profits of black gold, the peninsula’s rulers for decades paid this looming disaster no heed. Over the last few years, however, they’ve frantically begun to diversify their economy, investing vast sums in new
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