Analysis of the cruise market and destinations: An empirical study on Turkish passengersand homeports

The idea of cruise ships started after ship operators' decision on providing several services apart from accommodation and transportation, particularly to transatlantic passengers. At the beginning, the cruise service was given only American and British ships to American and British passengers. Currently it has grown tremendously in number, destinations and capacities. The cruise is a defined package that may include travel to the port of embarkation, an itinerary, an element of inclusive services and facilities (such as meals, entertainment etc.), standardized specific accommodation, and various other services. Considering a cruise as a product of tourism, the cruise market is a place, where cruise demand (passengers who are willing to take a cruise) and supply (cruise operators) come together. The cruise is a niche market, but it is an oligopoly. Approximately, four biggest cruise companies control 80 % of the world cruise fleet. Most of these companies are based on American and British headquarters, but there are Europeans companies based in Italy and Germany. Turkey can get a share in the cruise industry particularly in the port services sector. Although there are many destinations in Turkey four cruise tourism, only few ports have suitable conditions for modern cruise ships. Apart from Istanbul, Antalya and İzmir, none of them can handle ships as a homeport. While turnaround (homeport) operations can be done in these ports, they need to be further developed in order to match modern cruise industry requirements. Moreover, there aren't any Turkish cruise ship companies. Yet, Turkey is clearly a cruise region it has many touristic attractions for the cruise market. It has ports in the south such as Antalya and Alanya which are used by ships especially at the end of spring and at the beginning of autumn while they sail from Suez Canal-Indian Ocean (autumn) to the Mediterranean and from Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean (spring). Blacksea also became a new destination only before political problems in Ukrainian and Russian costs. Considering potential of Turkey, this study aimed at analyzing the current status of cruise industry in Turkey. Also, criteria to become a cruise homeport are defined by experts via an empirical study that included a questionnaire. In addition to this, taking account of growing number of Turkish passengers, their profile is also defined as potential cruise customers. As there are not sufficient studies about the Turkish cruise market in literature, the author of this thesis hopes that the results of this research may be useful for other researchers who focus on similar fields.