Regent Seven Seas Voyager, carrying 750 passengers, docked at the city’s Sarayburnu Port, Istanbul last week. The Regent Seven Seas Voyager, mostly carrying tourists from Italy and Greece, arrived at Sarayburnu at 8:30 a.m.
Cruise tourism in Istanbul which had come to a standstill in the last four years has started to rebound this year. Some 24 cruise ships were expected to arrive in the city by October and the number is expected to reach 80 in 2020.
A new cruise port is in the plans at Istanbul’s Yenikapı district and the tender bidding is likely to take place by the end of this year.
In addition, Istanbul’s mega-port project Galataport, which is currently under construction, is expected to revive the city’s cruise tourism sector.
The Culture and Tourism Ministry forecast that the port will host around 500 cruise ships with an average of 4,000 passengers each. With these ongoing and planned projects, Istanbul is expected to become one of the major cruise centers in the Mediterranean region.
