Finally, after a long two years, the Cruise Industry is back making waves within Turkey’s ever increasing Tourism Industry, as the new Galataport welcomed the Costa Venezia to it’s docks last week, the biggest Cruise Ship to drop anchor in the Turkish Port.
The 209 foot high vessel, with a capacity for 5100 passengers stayed for around six days before departing for Izmir on Monday, and with a full schedule planned for this year right up until Winter, it’s set to be a good year. Ali Yerlikaya, who is the Governor of Istanbul, took the opportunity to visit the vessel at Galataport, along with Culture and Tourism Minister Nuri Esroy who was keen to point out that ‘Istanbul will become the top city to receive these kind of Cruise Ships, it needs to be a homeport again after all these years’.
Aiming for a record number of tourists this year (around 42 million) providing a total revenue of around $35bn, Istanbul has recently been added to the Michelin Culinary Guide, plus along with it’s other attractions such as shopping, gastronomy, history, and art/culture, plus it’s infrastructure capabilities and inbound flights from over 120 countries, it’s a very realistic figure to achieve.
Galataport itself already has over 200 reservations for this year, and if that increases again next year, there may even be the need for another New Port by the end of 2024!
