When you think of a cruise vacation, you probably imagine sailing the tropical waters of the Caribbean, or navigating around the Greek islands. Your brain likely isn’t conjuring images of the sandswept deserts of Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia strives to make itself more attractive for international tourism — making the process of getting a visa very easy, and establishing tourism-specific destinations like NEOM and AlUla. And thanks to its efforts, it’s become a desirable new destination for Red Sea cruises. Since the first cruise to Saudi Arabia in January 2022, sailings to the kingdom have multiplied. Right now Jeddah is the country’s main cruise port, though as tourism development continues throughout the region, more ports are likely to open. Whether you’re a cruise enthusiast or a newbie, now’s the time to consider a Saudi Arabia cruise.
The lessons learned for cruises to avoid disasters in today’s world
27.11.2023 - 09:53 / traveldailynews.com / Cruises
State-of-the-art equipment has turned the tide against potential cruise ship disasters. However, we can never completely let our guard down; cruise ships should constantly be looking for further innovations to keep passengers safe.
Statistically, cruising is largely a safe venture – the likelihood of passing away aboard a cruise ship is about 1 in 6.25 million. Even if any mortality is too many, recent research shows that cruising is still one of the safest ways to travel and enjoy leisure time. However, failures in emergency responses, engineering, or seamanship, are lingering issues. Throw in treacherous weather conditions and far-distant locations, and a disaster is not an impossibility. Just recently, due to heavy fog, the Norwegian Sun cruise liner collided with a tiny iceberg (growler) while sailing through Alaska. The remainder of the cruise had to be cancelled and thankfully no one was harmed.
Cruise ship catastrophes, despite their rarity, attract sensationalist global media attention when they occur and can cost cruise ship businesses millions of dollars in lost income. Cruise ship accident data is not prolific, but from available statistics, there have been 448 'major' cruise ship accidents since 2005. Between 2000 and 2019, a reported 623 cruise ship passengers and crew died in these accidents.
It should be noted that more than 20 businesses operate 323 cruise ships across the world, and these ships have a combined passenger capacity of more than 540,000. The overall number of passengers and crew members killed aboard a cruise ship each year, although not insignificant, pales compared to the number of people who embark each year.
Furthermore, cruise companies take numerous preventive measures, exchanging faulty boat parts and running various drills. It significantly lowers the risk of a potential cruise ship disaster.
Let’s examine what we have learnt about cruise disasters in terms of causes, and how current technology can avert future tragedies.
Communication and radar
A ship's radar is one means of detecting other ships and avoiding collisions. Radar, however, isn't perfect. In crowded regions, systems have been shown to perform less successfully and are vulnerable to extreme weather. Crew members getting preoccupied with onboard instruments, causing them to lose sight of what is occurring on the surrounding seas, is a contributing factor in certain incidents.
According to the IFT Transport Outlook 2019, marine commerce demand might quadruple in the next 30 years. So, ships must be communicating and locating themselves correctly. A Japanese company, Fujitsu Laboratories, employs artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technology to calculate vessel collision risk. Operators can
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