The intense tourist interest in Türkiye was also reflected in the cruise figures. In the first 8 months of this year, 597 cruise ships landed at ports in Türkiye. 347 thousand of the 552 thousand cruise tourists who preferred Türkiye came in July and August. After Kuşadası, Galataport was the second port where most cruise ships landed.
According to the statistics announced by the General Directorate of Maritime Trade, 597 cruise ships landed in Turkish ports in the first 8 months, 160 of which were in August.
How many passengers have arrived?
The number of passengers arriving on a cruise in the first eight months of 2022 was determined as 552 thousand. Of this figure, 41 thousand incoming passengers, 50 thousand outgoing passengers, and 460 thousand transit passengers.
The busiest port
Kuşadası was the port where the most ships landed with 286 cruise ships, followed by Istanbul Galataport with 106 ships. On the other hand, Bodrum Port ranked third with 67 ships.
The busiest ports in terms of passenger traffic were Kuşadası with 296 thousand passengers and Istanbul Galataport with 137 thousand passengers.
The target is 1.5 million
A total of 900 cruise ships are expected to land at Turkish ports by the end of 2022. With these ships, 1.5 million tourists are expected to visit Türkiye. The highest number of passengers in cruise tourism in Türkiye was reached in 2013 with 2.3 million tourists. The year in which the most ships landed was 2011 with 1650 cruise ships. In 2019, the year just before the pandemic, 344 cruise ships and 300,896 tourists visited Türkiye. While 1824 tourists came with only 5 ships in 2020, in 2021 34,988 passengers and 78 ships approached Turkish ports.