MSC Cruises is returning to Turkish ports with two ships for the 2021 summer season. The ships, which will operate the Aegean & Adriatic and Eastern Mediterranean itineraries, have designated both Istanbul and Kuşadası as key embarkation and disembarkation ports in the company's travel program.
The MSC Fantasia and MSC Lirica, each with a capacity of nearly 3,500 passengers, will call at Turkish ports and make a total of 48 trips to Istanbul and Kusadasi in 2021. MSC Cruises plans to transport an average of 212,000 passengers to Turkey and host 10,000 guests from Turkey on these trips.
According to MSC Fantasia's 9-day itinerary between April and September 2021, Istanbul, Kuşadası near the ancient ruins of Ephesus, Katakolon, the birthplace of the Olympics, Piraeus, where guests can reach Athens via land tours, Corfu Island, Bari and Venice in Italy, which can be easily visited from the port of Trieste in Northern Italy, will be the stops the ship will make before returning to Istanbul.
MSC Lirica will offer 7-night cruises from Kuşadası to Piraeus from May 2021 to September 2021, and according to the itinerary, it will call at the Greek islands of Mykonos, Haifa on Israel's Mediterranean coast, Limassol in Cyprus, and Rhodes in the Greek islands.
MSC Cruises Managing Director Angelo Capurro said, “We are very excited to return to Turkey. When we brought passengers to Turkey, we operated as a general sales agent, but as of February 2018, we restructured our organization as an MSC office and succeeded in achieving a stronger position in the Turkish market,” he added.,
“Currently, we have accurate and effective sales tools that we have developed taking into account the requests of travel agencies and that simplify the booking process for agencies. We believe that the support our agencies, with whom we have been working for many years and have become like family, provide to our individual and corporate sales will continue to grow. We anticipate a successful year together in the Aegean & Adriatic programs, which include Istanbul and Kusadasi, during the summer of 2021.”







