Öztürk, Chairman of the İMEAK Chamber of Shipping, stated that cruise companies such as MSC, Costa, and Norwegian will start their Turkey voyages, and said, “30 ships have been booked in İzmir Port”.
İzmir Port is counting the days to host cruise ships. İzmir Port, where not a single ship has visited since May 2017, will host the tourists brought by MCS and Norwegian companies after Costa, which will arrive in March. Yusuf Öztürk, Head of İzmir Branch of the İMEAK Chamber of Shipping, stated that for now, 30 ships have made reservations at İzmir Port, and this number is increasing every week. Pointing out that there are promising developments in world cruise tourism, which came to a sudden halt due to the pandemic, Öztürk said, “Last year, 125 ships were waiting at the ports in the Mediterranean, while only five ships belonging to three companies were traveling. Today, 69 ships belonging to 32 cruise brands are traveling in the Mediterranean, even though the pandemic continues. Cruise tourism has managed to quickly adapt to the health and safe journey required by the pandemic.”
Emphasizing that many ships are expected to dock at Çeşme Port in the coming period, Öztürk said: “It is expected that 650 ships will dock at Ege Port Kuşadası and 250 ships at Galataport Istanbul in the 2022 season. Around 30 ships have already been booked to İzmir Alsancak Port. It is planned that cruise ships will arrive in İzmir as of March. Many ships are expected to dock at Çeşme Port. With the opening of the season, it will not be a surprise that new expeditions will come to the agenda.” Stating that İzmir Port hosted 552 thousand passengers in 2012, Öztürk said that it was not possible to reach the number of ships and passengers in the past years in a short time and he emphasized that İzmir Port will turn into a strong destination every year.
Frequent Destination
Announcing that cruise brands such as MSC, Costa, and Norwegian will start their Turkey flights, Öztürk said, “As the newest cruise terminal in the Mediterranean, Galataport accepts cruise ships since last October, which will create a new attraction in the Eastern Mediterranean and İzmir will also be an attractive frequent destination on this route. To increase the revenue to be generated, the İzmir Port passenger terminal should be modernized before the season and the Kemeraltı walking route should be reviewed.”