Number of cruise tourists visiting Turkey decreases in 2014

İZMİR - Anadolu Agency

DHA Photo

Data compiled by the Transportation Ministry has shown that the number of cruise tourists who visited Turkey in 2014 decreased by 20 percent from the previous year. 

Black Sea ports doubled the number of cruise tourists in 2014 from 2013, although leading cruise ports attracted lower numbers of cruise tourists than they had done in 2013. 

A total of 1.79 million cruise tourists visited Turkey in 2014, representing a 20 percent decrease from the previous year. The Istanbul Port, one of the country’s biggest cruise ports, hosted 518,000 tourists last year with a 25 percent decline from the figures in 2013. The number of cruise tourists who visited the İzmir Port declined to 257,000 in 2014 by around a 47 percent decrease from 2013. Decreases of around 50 percent in the number of cruise tourists were also the case in other leading cruise ports, including Alanya, Kuşadası, Çeşme and Marmaris. 

The Kuşadası Port became the most visited cruise port last year with around 556,500 tourists, surpassing Istanbul Port, the champion of 2013. 

Cruise ports in the Black Sea significantly increased the number of tourists they attracted in 2014. The Black Sea province of Sinop saw the highest increase with around 17,000 tourists in 2014 from around 7,000 in 2013. The Trabzon Port also doubled the number of tourists it hosted in 2014 with around 16,000 visitors.