An analysis of cruise tourism on Turkish economy; a case study for Istanbul and Barcelona ports

Considering the rising momentum of tourism, companies and countries plunged into a quest for alternative activities over the longstanding choices in order to match more complex options demanded by people as a result of the globalization and technological improvement. In response to this demand, tourism is diversified and expanded into new alternatives. Cruise industry is an oligopoly and a sub-branch of tourism industry with its both labour and capital abundant factors. According to the official numbers, cruise line destinations mainly concentrated on Caribbean's and Mediterranean whereas 9% of global cruisers passed from Turkey as Turkey responds to this with 21 active cruise harbours. Understanding the itineraries as well as destinations is important in order to maintain and prosper current place in global zone. In our study, we aim to analyse the indicators that boost the cruise industry by concentrating on the attractive factors in world's leading destinations in order to investigate the Turkey's current and possible future place in the industry.