Some 18 cruise ships visited Turkish ports in January

ISTANBUL

Some 18 cruise ships visited Türkiye’s ports in January, bringing nearly 20,000 visitors, according to data from the Transport Ministry.

This marked the highest number of cruise ship passengers visiting the country for the month of January since January 2011, when 20,712 passengers arrived in Türkiye on cruise ships.

Türkiye hopes to attract more than 2 million cruise ship passengers this year.

Turkish ports saw a record number of cruise ships and passengers last year.

Some 1,192 cruise ships visited the country’s ports, with October witnessing the busiest traffic last year.

The number of cruise ship passengers surged by nearly 50 percent compared to 2022 to more than 1.5 million.

Last month, Istanbul and the northern province of Samsun were the busiest in terms of cruise ship traffic. Istanbul and Samsun, on the Black Sea coast, welcomed 4 cruise ships each, with 4,900 and 3,900 passengers, respectively.

The ports of Amasra and Trabzon, both also on the Black Sea coast, welcomed 3 cruise ships. More than 3,000 cruise travelers visited Amasra, while the corresponding number of the province of Trabzon was 2,957.

Two cruise ships with 1,800 passengers on board docked at the popular tourist destination Kuşadası last month.

The western provinces of Çanakkale and İzmir received one cruise ship each in January, according to the official data.

More than 2 million foreign tourists visited Türkiye in the first month of 2024, marking a 2.1 percent increase from a year ago.

Last year, Türkiye welcomed 49.2 million foreign holidaymakers, up 10.4 percent from 2022.

Türkiye aims to attract 60 million visitors and generate $60 billion in tourism revenues in 2024.