Istanbul, Marmaris, Bodrum, İzmir, And Kuşadası Drive Türkiye’s Cruise Tourism Boom, Welcoming A Record Three Hundred Twenty-six Thousand Four Hundred Fifty Passengers In July, Achieving The Highest Figures In Twelve Years

Published on August 26, 2025

Türkiye’s cruise tourism has reached a historical milestone successful July 2025, pinch complete 326,000 passengers visiting cardinal ports. This singular maturation is driven by an summation successful cruise calls astatine awesome ports for illustration Istanbul, Marmaris, Bodrum, İzmir, and Kuşadası, mixed pinch Türkiye’s strategical investments successful larboard infrastructure and nan increasing world request for Mediterranean cruise destinations. This surge marks nan champion capacity successful complete 12 years, reflecting Türkiye’s rising entreaty arsenic a apical cruise destination.

Türkiye has achieved a record-breaking milestone successful its cruise tourism sector, pinch July 2025 marking nan highest number of passengers successful complete a decade. The state welcomed 326,450 cruise passengers crossed its 18 ports, reflecting a 3.3% year-on-year summation compared to July 2024.

In nan first 7 months of 2025, nan full number of cruise passengers reached 1.06 million, representing a 19% emergence compared to nan aforesaid play successful nan erstwhile year. This surge marks nan strongest capacity for Türkiye successful nan first half of nan twelvemonth since 2013.

Looking ahead, Türkiye is targeting a important boost successful its cruise tourism sector. After reaching astir 1.9 cardinal passengers successful 2024, nan state intends to pull astir 2.5 cardinal cruise passengers by nan extremity of 2025, signaling an eager thrust to grow its marketplace share. Industry experts judge that, based connected nan existent maturation trends, Türkiye is connected way to execute its 2025 extremity if nan momentum is maintained.

The information provided by nan Directorate General of Maritime Affairs wrong nan Transport and Infrastructure Ministry indicates that 675 cruise ships docked astatine Turkish ports during nan first 7 months of 2025, carrying complete 1 cardinal passengers. This is an summation from nan 577 ships that arrived successful nan aforesaid play past year, demonstrating nan increasing request for cruise tourism successful nan region.

The cardinal ports contributing to nan surge successful cruise rider numbers see Kuşadası, which recorded 516,930 passengers from 316 cruise calls — a 20% year-on-year increase. Istanbul followed pinch 301,124 passengers from 127 cruise calls, showing a 16% growth. Other important contributors included Bodrum (67,547 passengers), İzmir (52,087 passengers), and Marmaris (22,571 passengers). These 5 ports accounted for nan mostly of cruise tourism activity during nan first half of 2025.

Despite a diminution successful nan wide number of overseas visitors to Türkiye, which dropped by 2.1% year-on-year to 28.4 cardinal arrivals betwixt January and July, cruise tourism has remained a beardown performer. While accepted tourism faced a flimsy dip, nan cruise conception has proven resilient, bucking nan wide trend.

Cruise visitors are considered a high-value market, pinch reports indicating that they typically walk an mean of $200 per time during their stays. This makes them a peculiarly important demographic for nan Turkish economy, arsenic they lend importantly to section businesses, including hotels, restaurants, and unit outlets.

The upward trajectory of Türkiye’s cruise tourism assemblage is an encouraging motion for nan future. The country’s strategical location, rich | taste heritage, and world-class infrastructure proceed to pull world cruise lines. With a clear attraction connected enhancing rider experiences and expanding larboard facilities, Türkiye is poised to go an moreover much salient subordinate successful nan world cruise tourism industry.

In summation to its eager rider targets, nan Turkish authorities is investing heavy successful nan modernization of larboard facilities, aiming to amended rider services, trim congestion, and summation capacity to accommodate nan increasing number of cruise ships. These efforts are portion of Türkiye’s broader strategy to diversify its tourism offerings and pull much world visitors crossed each segments of nan industry.

If nan affirmative trends successful cruise tourism proceed done nan second half of 2025, Türkiye could beryllium connected way to not only scope its target of 2.5 cardinal cruise passengers but perchance transcend it, reinforcing its position arsenic a starring cruise destination successful nan Mediterranean and beyond.