Alanya welcomes first cruise ship this year

ANTALYA

The Alanya district of popular holiday destination Antalya has welcomed this season’s first cruise ship.

The luxury liner Artania arrived at the Alanya port from the Limassol port in Greek Cyprus with 690 passengers, most of them German travelers, and 450 crew members on board on April 10. After spending the day in Antalya, the cruise ship set sail for Greece’s Rhodes Island.

The cruise ship is expected to pay another visit to Alanya later this year, probably in November, said Ozan Aksoy, an executive from a tour operator.

With many countries relaxing COVID-related measures and easing travel restrictions, Turkey hopes to welcome more cruise ships this year than in 2021.

After world-renowned companies readded Turkish ports to their routes, People from the industry said at the start of the year that the Turkish cruise sector is expecting a boom in cruise tourism in 2022, with over 1 million tourists.

The cruise ship traffic at the country’s ports already appears to be gaining momentum. Last week, “Norwegian Jade” docked at Galataport in Istanbul with more than 1,000 passengers. Also, Norwegian Jade and another cruise ship, “Emerald Azzurra,” visited the Kuşadası district in the province of Aydın.

Data from the Transport Ministry’s General Directorate of Maritime Affairs show that 78 cruise ships visited Turkey’s ports in 2021, up from only five ships in the previous year.

In line with the nearly 1,500 percent increase in cruise traffic, the number of cruise passengers rose from 1,824 in 2020 to more than 45,000 last year.

In 2020, the Marmaris port was the busiest with 31 cruise ship visits, followed by Kuşadası with 27. Galataport ranked third with nine cruise ship visits.

Turkey had a record of 2.1 million tourists in 2011, during which 1,615 cruise liners visited.