The number of cruise ships docked at Türkiye’s ports in the first seven months of this year has soared forty-fold compared to the same period of last year to reach 437, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu said Friday.

The country hosted some 376,924 cruise ship passengers in the said period, the minister said in a written statement.

Karaismailoğlu said that only 11 cruise ships came to Türkiye’s ports at the same time last year and noted that Kuşadası on the country’s touristic Western shores topped the list this year by hosting the most cruise ships with some 220 ships docking at the port.

Istanbul’s new state-of-the-art port, Galataport, has followed Kuşadası with 79 cruise ships, while Bodrum's port in the Aegean ranked third with 45.

Commenting on the passengers of the cruise ships, Karaismailoğlu said that some 25,739 of the total passengers were incoming passengers, while 34,997 were departing and 316,188 were transit passengers.

Karaismailoğlu stated that with 212,486 passengers, the highest passenger traffic took place in Kuşadası Port and noted that Istanbul’s Galataport welcomed 98,033 passengers and Bodrum Port hosted 28,629.

Looking at the distribution of cruise traffic by months, Karaismailoğlu underlined that this year, with 136 ships, the most ships arrived in May,

"Passenger traffic was 115,907 with 122 cruise ships in June. In July, 120 cruise ships approached Turkish ports. In July, 10,707 passengers arrived at Turkish ports, while some 13,478 have departed," he informed.

In July, the total passenger traffic was 121,107, he added.

Karaismailoğlu emphasized that the first cruise ships docked in Sinop and Trabzon, one of the important ports and tourism centers of the Black Sea, after five years, and stated that a cruise ship came to Amasra Port for the first time as well.