By Bosphorus News Economy Desk | Original Reporting by Semi Tektaş
Semi Tektaş graduated from Ege University's Faculty of Communication, Department of Journalism, in 2019. He began his journalism career at outlets including Ekonomik Çözüm, Yeni İzmir and İlkses Gazetesi, and has covered politics and economics for Dokuz Eylül Gazetesi since February 2026.
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Cruise ship traffic at İzmir's port has thinned to occasional small vessels while nearby Kuşadası continues to draw large ships, according to the head of the city's cruise tourism association.
Korhan Bilgin, president of the İzmir Cruise and Maritime Tourism Association, told Dokuz Eylül that uncertainty surrounding the future of İzmir's port is preventing cruise companies from committing to long-term route planning. He said the city now receives mostly ships with 300 to 500 passenger capacity, a scale he said generates little meaningful economic activity for local businesses.
Bilgin said cruise lines have progressively pulled back from İzmir since a large vessel, Fantasia, called around July 8. Since then, he said, the port has received at most one small ship a month, with recent arrivals limited to British or Russian vessels in the 300 to 500 passenger range. He linked the pullback partly to ongoing talk of privatizing the port, which he said has left companies unable to plan around an unclear outcome. "We are waiting for an announcement from the Türkiye Wealth Fund," he said.
Kuşadası, by contrast, continues to host large ships with 5,000 to 6,000 passenger capacity. Bilgin said fares on those routes have fallen sharply amid competition among cruise operators, dropping to between 250 and 300 euros and, a year earlier, as low as 150 euros. He said the low headline fares draw passengers who calculate that a cabin covering meals and laundry costs less than staying home, even as onboard charges for internet access, drinking water, casino use and daily service fees, roughly $20 a day, push total trip costs toward $300 to $400.
Bilgin said the growing number of operators on the route, including multiple MSC vessels alongside Royal Caribbean and Princess ships, has intensified fare competition. He said those onboard costs reduce what passengers are willing to spend on shore visits, while cruise lines separately steer higher-paying passengers toward company-organized shore excursions and affiliated shopping venues selling carpets and jewelry, limiting how much passenger spending reaches city businesses either way.
Sources: Dokuz Eylül, Bosphorus News review and reporting.