Number of cruise passengers reaches 1.5 mln in 9 months

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s number of cruise passengers reached 1.5 million in the first nine months of the year, up 34 percent year-on-year, according to data from the General Directorate of Maritime Affairs.

Some 917 cruise ships docked at Türkiye's ports from January to September, up from 876 during the same period last year.

Most passengers and ships came to Kuşadası, a large resort town in the southwestern province of Aydın on the Aegean coast, as the town’s port hosted 412 ships and over 653,400 passengers in the nine-month period.

Istanbul’s Galataport recorded 150 ships and more than 337,700 passengers over the same period.

Meanwhile, the port in the coastal town of Bodrum, located in the southwestern province of Muğla, welcomed 75 ships carrying just over 97,000 cruise passengers. The port in Çeşme, located in İzmir province, saw 66 ships and 50,112 passengers, while the Port of İzmir registered 45 ships and 128,789 passengers. In Marmaris, also in Muğla, 33 ships brought 89,882 passengers.

Over the same nine-month period, Samsun in northern Türkiye saw 22 ships and more than 21,100 passengers. The port town of Amasra in Bartın province on the Black Sea coast hosted 21 ships with over 19,800 passengers, while Çanakkale city on the southern shore of the Dardanelles registered 21 ships and more than 13,600 passengers. Trabzon, also on the Black Sea coast, saw 20 ships carrying just over 19,000 passengers.

Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu stated that Türkiye has made great investments in all modes of transportation in the last 22 years, and the country became a center of cruise tourism with recent investments in ports.

“In the last nine months, we have come close to the last year-end’s figure of a little over 1.5 million passengers, and we expect this figure to rise even higher by the end of 2024,” he said.