Turkey cruise tourism hits record passenger numbers

Turkey has reached a new record in cruise tourism for the January-July period. During these seven months, 656 cruise ships docked at 18 different ports, facilitating a total of 1,070,481 passenger movements. This figure represents the highest number of passengers recorded for this specific period since data collection began in 2011.

Monthly data shows a significant upward trend, with passenger numbers peaking in July, which saw 314,026 passengers across 168 ships. Kuşadası recorded the highest volume of passengers during this period, hosting 274 cruise ships and 480,983 passengers. Other major hubs included Istanbul, which saw 265,369 passengers across 119 ships, and İzmir, with 66,398 passengers.

In the Black Sea region, Trabzon Port hosted 4 cruise ships with a total of 3,007 passengers, while Samsun Port recorded 6,032 passengers from 7 ships.