The number of cruise ship passengers, including passengers coming to Turkiye, going from Turkiye to other countries and transit passengers, increased by 79.15% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 61 thousand 113.
In the January-March 2023 period, 42 cruise ships docked at the country’s ports. In the same period this year, the number increased to 50.
While 12 cruise ships docked at the ports in January last year, 2 in February and 28 in March, this number was 18, 5 and 27 respectively in the same months of this year.
Cruise ship passenger numbers
The number of cruise ship passengers, including those coming to Turkiye, going from Turkiye to other countries and transit passengers, increased by 79.15% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 61 thousand 113.
A total of 2,951 passengers came to Turkiye with these ships, 753 in January last year, 627 in March, 1380, 893 in January this year, 16 in February and 2 thousand 42 in March.
On the other hand, 1600 passengers, 796 in January, 4 in February and 800 in March last year, went from Turkiye to other countries by cruise ships. This year, the number of passengers leaving the country in the said months was recorded as 3 thousand 308, namely 908, 17 and 2 thousand 383, respectively.
While 31 thousand 132 transit cruise passengers preferred Turkiye in the first 3 months of 2023, the number in question increased by 76.19 to 54 thousand 854 in the same period of this year.
Kusadasi port hosted the most passengers
During the said period, Kusadasi hosted the most cruise ships and passengers. The port hosted 26 ships and 35 thousand 885 passengers in the first 3 months of 2024.
During this period, 9 thousand 821 passengers came to Istanbul Galataport from 8 ships.
4 ships carrying 3 thousand 905 cruise tourists docked in Samsun. This port was followed by Trabzon, Canakkale and Amasra with 3 ships each. 2 thousand 957, 2 thousand 678 and 3 thousand 44 cruise passengers visited these regions respectively.
During the mentioned period, Antalya hosted 1 ship and 282 passengers, Izmir hosted 1 ship and 2 thousand 533 passengers, Marmaris hosted 1 ship and 8 passengers.
“Cruise tourism is growing with investments”
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu said that Turkiye has become the center of cruise tourism with investments.
Pointing out that the number of passengers coming to the country by cruise ships exceeded 1 million 500 thousand last year, Uraloglu said:
“We continue to work with all our strength to increase this number even higher by the end of 2024. Cruise tourism continues to grow together with Turkiye with the investments made in recent years. We have also started to reap the fruits of the investments made for many years with our cruise tourism. We predict that record passenger numbers will be reached by the end of the year. We expect more cruise ships and passengers to come to our country’s ports, especially during the summer period.”
Uraloglu pointed out that Turkiye is a country in demand in tourism and added that the contributions of investments made in cruise ports to tourism and the country’s economy are reflected in the figures.
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz