Türkiye hosts 1.7M cruise passengers in January-October

ISTANBUL

Türkiye hosted 1.7 million cruise passengers in the first 10 months of the year, the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry announced on Tuesday.

While the number of passengers increased by 26.8%, the number of cruise ships arriving in Türkiye rose by 3.7% to 1,112 compared to the same period last year.

The Port of Kusadasi in southwestern Türkiye received 501 cruise ships and 791,300 passengers in the January-October period, becoming the busiest port in the country.

Ports in Istanbul received 184 ships with 402,226 passengers and the cruise port in the southwestern resort town Bodrum saw 92 ships, said Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the transport and infrastructure minister.

Meanwhile, ports in the southwestern province of Izmir hosted 153,369 cruise passengers.

As for October, some 295,892 cruise passengers with 195 ships arrived in Türkiye.

Port of Kusadasi hosted 137,898 cruise passengers, followed by Istanbul ports with 64,509 passengers, and Izmir ports with 24,508.

“We continue our work to maximize the tourism potential of our peninsular country, and transportation and tourism are the two essential sectors for the economic and social development of Türkiye,” the minister said.