Turkey's Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu has announced that in the first 5 months of 2023, the country welcomed 299,000+ cruise passengers.
This represents a significant increase of 43.1% in the number of cruise ships docking at Turkish ports compared to the same period last year.
Additionally, there has been an impressive 114% rise in the number of cruise passengers during this timeframe.
Uraloglu credited the growth in cruise tourism to the opening of Istanbul Galataport Port and the easing of COVID measures in the final quarter of 2021. He expressed satisfaction with the investments made in cruise tourism, highlighting that 299,000+ guests were hosted at Turkish ports from January to May 2023.
Kusadası Port emerged as the leading destination for cruise ships during this period, accommodating a total of 124 ship calls. Galataport welcomed 43 ship calls, Cesme Port received 20, and İstanbul's TDI Sarayburnu Dock received 7. Specifically, Kusadası port hosted 157,940 cruise passengers, followed by 67740 passengers at Galataport, 3276 passengers at TDI Sarayburnu dock, and 14777 passengers at Antalya Port.