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 and two Royal Caribbean ships call the port home year-round, while Disney operates one ship for limited sailings. An estimated 946,000 cruise passengers will sail from the port in 2017, a ten percent increase over 2016. A 2015 economic analysis estimated that cruise passengers injected $56 million per year into the local Galveston economy, an average of $62 per passenger. There are two dedicated cruise terminals. Unlike many other ports, the cruise terminals are not used for other activities, such as conferences or corporate events. Terminal 1 was expanded and improved in 2010, as a condition of Carnival placing their