REVIEW OF CRUISE TOURISM IN THE WORLD AND IN TURKEY, GLOBAL TRENDS AND LOCAL FACTORS AFFECTING CRUISE TOURISM IN TURKEY

Cruise tourism plays an important role in marine tourism all over the world. Having Aegean andMediterranean coasts and İstanbul which is a center of attraction increases the potential of take a large economicalshare from cruise tourism industry. However, in recent years, it is seen that Turkey cannot benefit from thispotential. Looking at the statistics, the number of passengers visited cruise ports in Turkey increased gradually tothe highest level in 2013, but started to decline in 2014 and 2015. Finally the number of cruise passengers decreasedmore than 70 percent when compared to peak year, 2013 and reached to lowest level since 2004. In this study, stateof the cruise tourism industry globally and in Turkey was examined. Global trends and local factors affecting thedecline in this sector, which provides significant economic return to our country, have been investigated.