Dubai is making waves on the tourism news radar yet again, this time literally.

On Tuesday, Dubai Tourism posted a tweet saying, “Titanic II will sail from China to Dubai on maiden voyage in 2018”. There was a link to a September 26 news report saying Blue Star Line, which belongs to Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer, announced that Titanic II’s first cruise destination will be Dubai.

Earlier, Titanic II was to sail from Southampton to New York. Now, after the change in plans was announced, passengers will board in Jiangsu, China, and disembark in Dubai, according to Cruise Arabia Africa.

The ship has been in the news on and off since 2012, mostly for being a replica of the ill-fated original. Instead of the earlier launch in 2016, Titanic II will now sail in 2018.

In 2012, Palmer announced that the $500-million ship was to be built in China and would sail her first cruise in 2016, following the exact course of the RMS Titanic.

Since 2013, however, there were no updates, and it was rumoured that the project had been cancelled.

A spokesperson for Palmer said this week that the project was going to happen – just two years later. Details