Kuşadası, one of the important centers of cruise tourism, hosted 35 "floating hotels" even in the winter, giving a record signal for the upcoming summer.
Despite the season in winter, in the Kuşadası district of Aydın, one of the favorite centers in cruise tourism, with the morale of hosting 35 giant ships since the beginning of the year, a target of 1 million tourists by sea has been set by the end of the season.
Giant ships continue to anchor in Kuşadası, one of the important destinations of cruise tourism, known as "floating hotels".
Some of the tourists who step out of the giant ships that dock at Ege Port in Kuşadası, one of the important stops of the journey in the the Aegean, visit the Ancient City of Ephesus and the House of Virgin Mary in Selçuk district of İzmir, while others prefer to shop in the city center.
Cruise tourism, which continues to increase every year, experienced a stagnation after the coup attempt of FETO in 2016.
The number of ships, which decreased in 2017-2018, started to rise again in 2019, but with the new type of coronavirus epidemic in 2020, the sector became stagnant again.
Shipping has been very little for about 2 years all over the world. With the recovery of the sector, the activity started again in Kuşadası, one of the favorite routes of the Eastern Mediterranean, and the district hosted 496,211 tourists with 465 ships last year.
Ege Port General Manager Aziz Güngör stated that 2019 was a very bright year in cruise tourism in the world, 30 million passengers traveled by ships, and this number decreased to 5 million due to the coronavirus epidemic.
Emphasizing that the recovery experienced last year continues this year, Güngör said, "Therefore, it is expected to reach 2019 levels this year, this is the situation in the world. When we look at the Mediterranean, there is actually a significant change in the Mediterranean market, which includes our country. The Mediterranean market, which has a 17 percent share in 2022, is expected to take a 20 percent share in 2023. Therefore, it is in an increasingly popular market. This is undoubtedly reflected in our country in a positive way."
Emphasizing that half of the 1 million passengers arriving in Turkey by cruise last year landed in Kuşadası, Güngör said:
"Kuşadası is the port where the ships and passengers coming to Turkey are hosted the most. About 500 of the 1000 ships that came to our country last year stopped by Kuşadası. When we look at 2023, 850 thousand passengers are expected with approximately 600 cruises. When we add the ferry passengers to this, we expect approximately 1 million passengers to visit Kuşadası. This is a very important development. The fact that the ships coming to Kuşadası will grow and that the occupancy rate of the ships will approach 90 percent will play an important role in this increase."
Güngör added that they will host the highest number of ships this year compared to recent years, and that 35 ships arrived in Kuşadası between January 1 and April 15 this year.