Recent reports state that the resort of Kusadasi will be expecting over 300 cruise ship visits this year. Around 360,000 passengers will be coming to visit one of Turkey’s leading holiday destinations.
2019 saw a total of 194 cruise ships dock in Kusadasi ports and brought 180,000 visitors. This year is set for high numbers, though it has been reported that the year 2021 will be seeing the figures rise to 800,000 visitors. This is all terrific news for cruise tourism and Turkey.
Passengers travelling on much larger cruise ships are those with money, which is great news for Turkey as it hopes to boost the average spending from its international visitors.
Aziz Gungor, the general manager of Ege Port Limani, has stated that “Turkey is a key market for major global cruise operators and the decline in cruise traffic to Turkey over the past two-three years also adversely affected them.”
He went on to say that “Turkey was a lucrative market for those operators and their customer satisfaction with Turkey was very high. Those operators are now coming back.”
The head of the Kusadasi Tourism Association said that “The increase in cruise ship visits will definitely revive local business.”
Source: Hurriyet Daily News
