The number of cruise ships which visited ports in Turkey was 307 in 2017, down from a total of 538 in 2016, marking 43% decline, according to data from the Directorate General of Merchant Marine.
That came on top of 50% annual decline which was recorded in 2016.
As fewer liners docked at Turkey’s ports, cruise passenger traffic declined to 306,887 last year, down from 628,033 in 2016.
In 2017, just 4 cruise ships with 331 guests onboard visited port of Istanbul, the largest city in the country and a popular tourist attraction, compared to 46 cruise ships and a total of 9,353 cruise passengers in 2016.
Kuşadası, in Aydin province, also saw a decline in the cruise ships' number. In 2017, 126 cruise ships with 119,000 passengers onboard visited Kusadasi, down from 247 cruise ships and 349,781 travelers in 2016.
However, according to data from Directorate General of Merchant Marine, the number of ships passing through straits in Turkey increased in 2017 compared to 2016.
87,593 vessels sailed through Turkey’s straits last year, up from 86,464. In 2017, 42,978 ships used Bosphorus Strait. The corresponding figure for Dardanelles was 44,615.