Cruise tourism is entering a significant recovery period in 2022. During this period, Turkish ports started to come to the fore again.
With the acceleration of vaccination in cruise tourism, which slowed down during the pandemic process, reservations also accelerated. In 2022, 1.5 million cruise tourists with 900 ships are expected to ports such as Galataport, Kuşadası, and Antalya. Only 250 ships are expected to arrive at Galataport.
The acceleration of vaccination, which is hope for the whole world, has also started to increase cruise tourism. According to the news of Yeni Şafak, 2022 reservations have started in cruise tourism, which leaves approximately 4-5 times more income to the cities it visits compared to land and air tourists. Galataport, where 7 thousand passengers came with 9 ships this year, will host 800 thousand passengers with 250 cruise ships next year.
The share of Kuşadası is 85%
Aydın Erdemir, President of the Turkish Port Operators Association, gave information about the pandemic process and cruise tourism in Turkey. Pointing out that the cruise line constituted the wealthy segment with a high average age 20 years ago, and now it is preferred by the young people, he emphasized that this potential should be developed in Turkey. Stating that Turkey is not the main port, but a port of call Istanbul is a city with these characteristics, but relevant planning needs to be done. There are nearly 25 small and large cruise port facilities in Turkey where ships can dock. But the most important ones are Istanbul, Kusadasi, and Antalya. Kuşadası alone hosts 80-85 percent of it. We foresee that Galataport will grow rapidly.”
1.5 million tourists will come
Erdemir stated that 42 ships came to Kuşadası and 9 ships to Istanbul, and shared the following information, in 2022, more than 500 ships and 800 thousand passengers are targeted to Kuşadası. It is predicted that 1.5 million passengers will arrive in Turkey with a total of 800-900 ships, together with our other ports such as Antalya. To be the main port in the cruise port in Istanbul, a larger port must be established. Apart from Galataport, the ministry has such a project in Yenikapı and it is foreseen as such. With the Yenikapı project, it is aimed that 6-8 ships will dock at the same time so that large ships will dock.
Galataport is an exemplary project
Erdemir pointed out that if Istanbul is the main cruise port, it will make a great contribution to tourism and destinations can be made to places such as Trabzon, Çanakkale, and Fethiye. These cruise passengers land at the transit ports, visit the historical places and cities there in 6-12 hours and return to the ship again. The main port is not like that, and they can come 2-3 days in advance to the main port and do activities such as living in the city, shopping, accommodation, gastronomy. Galataport has been an exemplary project for us in Turkey. In the coming period, a project will be developed in Yenikapı. Tourism by cruise or sea is our future and a huge source of income.
Investor’s interest is growing
Erdemir stated that the interest in ports has increased as Turkey’s sea route potential in logistics is high. We have ports operated by only one international global port operator in our country, as well as ports operated by domestic and foreign partnerships. We can see that Turkish port operations are close to international ports,” he said.
We will grow with ports
Erdemir said that ports should be viewed as a state strategy. If Turkey is to grow, our ports must be enlarged on time and the problems must be solved in parallel with this. It takes an average of 4 years to get permission from many institutions, then put it into practice and build it.
