Iran’s first ever cruise ship completes maiden voyage

Iran says its first cruise ship since the 1979 Islamic Revolution has completed its maiden trip and docked in the Persian Gulf resort island of Qeshm.

The ship – which reports said were built in Sweden – carried more than 200 passengers on the 127-kilometre voyage from Kish, Iran’s other main resort island. The trip – that was made overnight –reportedly took around 12 hours.

The nine-storey ship is 176 meters long by 23 meters wide. It has 130 cabins and a total of 417 beds and can carry up to 1,600 passengers. Sunny can also carry 200 vehicles between Qeshm and Kish islands on four- to seven-day cruises, AFP reported.

It features two cinemas, restaurants, a swimming pool and a conference hall, the head of Qeshm’s maritime transport and port affairs, said Pejman Bahrami, the director in charge of port affairs of Qesh Free Trade Zone.

“We hope that the first cruise journey between Kish and Qeshm leads to a boost in tourism for these islands, increasing passengers and preventing millions of dollars being spent abroad,” AFP quoted Bahrami as saying.

The fare for each person is Rials 5 million (around $135 with each dollar at the average free market rate of Rials 37,000.)

Sunny entered Iran’s waters in late March.  Officials have already said it is meant to encourage the country’s coastal and marine tourism.  They have also said that the ship would start to visit more Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf and would be even used for voyages to Dubai in the future.