Galveston, Texas and Jazz legend Esther Phillips was born in Galveston in 1935. As of 2007, Galveston has five sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International: Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the southeast coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the American State of Texas. The community of , with an estimated population of 50,180 in 2015, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf
Port of Galveston winter season in 2012-2013. From 2014 to 2015, the cruise business expanded substantially, adding an additional 400,000 passengers. In order to lure larger ships, carrying up to 5,000 passengers, the port renovated and expanded Terminal 2. A new building was constructed on the foundations of an 80-year-old silo and then connected to the original Terminal 2. The port's contract with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines specified that the work would be completed before the "Liberty of the Seas" was repositioned to Galveston. Both Royal Caribbean and Carnival expressed public displeasure when the project was delayed multiple times. One delay was due