How Qatar Tourism’s Dual-Ship Cruise Deal with Celestyal and Huawei Tech Alliance is Reinventing Gulf Travel, Chinese Tourism, and Smart Visitor Engagement

Published on April 30, 2025

By: Tuhin Sarkar

Qatar Tourism’s dual-ship cruise deal with Celestyal and the Huawei tech alliance is redefining how Gulf travel, Chinese tourism, and smart visitor engagement evolve in 2025. This powerful Qatar Tourism cruise and technology combination is more than a partnership—it’s a blueprint. The dual-ship cruise deal with Celestyal is a landmark for Qatar Tourism’s bold entry into the Gulf travel space. Two Celestyal ships—MS Celestyal Journey and MS Celestyal Discovery—signal how Qatar Tourism’s dual-ship strategy cements Doha’s place in the Gulf cruise ecosystem. With this Celestyal collaboration, Qatar Tourism is steering the narrative for premium Gulf travel, where cruise passengers and Gulf travel enthusiasts experience Doha as a homeport like never before.

But the reinvention doesn’t stop at sea. Qatar Tourism’s alliance with Huawei is revolutionizing how Chinese tourism integrates with smart visitor engagement. Huawei’s tech arsenal brings new tools for Chinese tourism marketing and on-ground smart visitor engagement, fusing AI, digital maps, and mobile tech. For Qatar Tourism, Huawei is more than a partner—it’s a gateway to digital Gulf travel, enhanced Chinese tourism experiences, and futuristic smart visitor engagement across platforms. Through HarmonyOS, Petal Maps, and digital interfaces, Qatar Tourism and Huawei are making Chinese tourism more personalized, Gulf travel more connected, and smart visitor engagement more immersive.

Together, the Qatar Tourism dual-ship cruise deal with Celestyal and the Huawei alliance represent a powerful convergence of Gulf travel ambition, Chinese tourism strategy, and smart visitor engagement design, setting a new benchmark for regional innovation in tourism.

Qatar Tourism has made waves at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2025 in Dubai by unveiling a transformative cruise tourism initiative and a high-tech collaboration that signals its next phase of tourism expansion. On the opening day of the Middle East’s flagship travel trade show, the Gulf nation announced a strategic cruise deployment partnership with Celestyal Cruises and a future-focused MoU with global tech leader Huawei—moves designed to elevate Qatar’s status as both a cruise hub and a digitally integrated tourism leader.

Qatar’s Cruise Tourism Strategy Anchors on Dual-Ship Deployment with Celestyal

In a landmark development for the 2025–2026 winter cruise season, Qatar Tourism and Celestyal Cruises revealed a dual-ship strategy that will see MS Celestyal Journey homeport in Doha and MS Celestyal Discovery make consistent regional calls at Doha Port. This expanded deployment is expected to bring more than 25 ship calls and over 40,000 international cruise passengers to Qatar in the upcoming season, a massive leap from the 14,000 recorded in the previous year.

This announcement was made in the presence of key stakeholders, including Eng. Abdulaziz Ali Al-Mawlawi, CEO of Visit Qatar; Mr. Omar Al Jaber, Chief of Tourism Development Sector; and Mr. Lee Haslett, Chief Commercial Officer of Celestyal Cruises. The expanded cruise presence underlines Doha’s rising prominence as a central port in the Arabian Gulf’s emerging cruise ecosystem.

The Celestyal Journey’s homeporting reflects strategic alignment with Qatar’s National Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the economy and enhance the nation’s global connectivity through sustainable and culturally enriching travel offerings. Celestyal’s focus on mid-size ships and destination-focused experiences fits seamlessly with Qatar’s strategy of delivering premium, immersive tourism experiences that go beyond mass tourism models.

In parallel, the MS Celestyal Discovery’s frequent regional calls will not only reinforce intra-Gulf cruise circuits but also support local businesses, transport links, and last-mile tourism services in and around Doha. By leveraging Doha’s state-of-the-art cruise terminal infrastructure and promoting integrated port-city experiences, the country is well-positioned to challenge traditional cruise hubs like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Huawei Joins Forces with Visit Qatar for Smart Tourism Revolution

On the tech innovation front, Visit Qatar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Huawei, marking a significant step toward building a data-driven and digitally connected tourism ecosystem. The partnership aims to enhance visitor engagement, streamline digital planning, and expand Qatar’s tourism reach across China, Europe, and the GCC.

Huawei will leverage its cutting-edge Digital Marketing Platform, AI-powered travel tools, and the HarmonyOS-powered Atomic Cards, offering users seamless integration with Huawei Wallet, Petal Maps, and mobile-friendly services. The integration of these tools will allow Qatar to provide tailored content and real-time travel assistance, thus enriching the tourist experience across touchpoints—from arrival to departure.

This collaboration builds on the success of the Visit Qatar HarmonyOS Atomic Service, launched earlier in the year. With more than 40 million Chinese consumers actively using Huawei’s HarmonyOS interface, the integration opens the door to massive visibility in the Chinese tourism market—a key growth segment for Qatar in the post-pandemic landscape.

More broadly, the agreement reflects Qatar’s commitment to sustainability and smart city transformation. By embedding AI, location-based services, and interactive tourism experiences into its infrastructure, Qatar is laying the groundwork for a resilient, inclusive, and innovation-driven visitor economy.

ATM 2025: A Global Stage for Gulf Ambitions

Arabian Travel Market 2025 has become the global stage for countries like Qatar to showcase not only their destinations but also their investment in infrastructure, connectivity, and digital tourism transformation. For Qatar, this year’s announcements emphasize its multifaceted growth model—blending traditional tourism with smart innovation and regional cruise connectivity with global outreach.

With cruise travel gaining momentum in the Middle East, Qatar is seizing the moment to differentiate itself with bespoke, culturally immersive, and logistically efficient offerings. Doha’s airport-seaport synergy, visa facilitation measures, and luxury accommodation ecosystem all serve to boost cruise turnaround efficiency, thus making the destination highly attractive for global cruise operators.

Simultaneously, Qatar’s MoU with Huawei is not just a marketing play but a structural shift toward hyper-personalized digital travel planning. The goal is to enable real-time recommendations, predictive itinerary building, and multilingual AI assistance that speaks directly to the travel habits of Chinese, GCC, and European visitors alike.

Strategic Implications: Qatar as the Gulf’s Next Travel Powerhouse

The twin developments—cruise expansion and tech innovation—send a clear message: Qatar is positioning itself as a 360-degree tourism destination that thrives on connectivity, technology, and experience-driven travel.

From an economic standpoint, the expected 40,000 cruise arrivals will inject significant revenue into local tourism verticals—ranging from transport and dining to retail and cultural attractions. More importantly, each arrival serves as a potential long-term promoter of Qatar’s tourism brand globally.

On the digital front, Qatar is embracing platform economy principles, where value creation stems from interoperable systems, real-time data, and user-centric design. This aligns with broader GCC ambitions to localize tech, reduce reliance on traditional marketing, and foster tourism resilience through digitization.

Conclusion: A New Era for Gulf Tourism

Qatar’s announcements at ATM 2025 are more than ceremonial—they reflect a decisive pivot toward an integrated tourism vision that spans sea and screen, cruise docks and mobile apps, culture and code. By anchoring cruise ships in Doha and embedding travel services into everyday tech platforms, Qatar is redefining how destinations engage with the next generation of global travelers.

With the Arabian Gulf cruise market heating up and smart tourism evolving into a competitive necessity, Qatar’s proactive partnerships with Celestyal Cruises and Huawei place it at the helm of both physical and digital transformation in the regional tourism landscape.