Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu stated that the number of cruise passengers in the January-May period of this year increased by 114% compared to the same period of the previous year, exceeding 299 thousand.
In his written statement, Minister Uraloglu stated that Turkiye is one of the leading countries in cruise tourism.
Stating that cruise tourism has grown with the opening of Istanbul Galataport Port in the last quarter of 2021 and the removal of Covid-19 epidemic measures, Uraloglu said, “Investments in cruise tourism will continue and the ‘Century of Turkiye’ will be the century of cruise tourism as well. Especially with the investments made in recent years, cruise tourism continues to grow together with Turkiye. With our cruise tourism growing day by day, we have started to reap the fruits of investments made for many years. Even though there was a decline in cruise tourism with the Covid-19 pandemic, we continued our investments and hosted more than 299 thousand cruise passengers in the first 5 months of 2023. In the first five months of 2023, the number of cruise ships berthed at our ports increased by 43.1% and the number of cruise passengers increased by 114% compared to the same period of the previous year.”
124 cruise ships docked at Kusadasi Port
Uraloglu informed that they hosted 157 thousand 940 cruise passengers at Kusadasi Port, 67 thousand 740 cruise passengers at Galataport Port, 3 thousand 276 cruise passengers at Sarayburnu Pier and 14 thousand 777 cruise passengers at Antalya Port. “Our Kusadasi Port, hosting 124 ships, became the port where the most cruise ships dock. 43 ships visited Galataport Port, 20 ships visited Ulusoy Cesme Port and 7 ships visited TDI Sarayburnu Pier.”
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz
