A cruise ship carrying about 2,000 mostly US passengers has changed course after Türkiye cancelled its planned stop at Kuşadası port. Scarlet Lady, operated by Virgin Voyages, is now due to visit Cairo and the Greek island of Crete instead, according to the event organiser Atlantis Events.
The ship had been due to call at Kuşadası Ege Port on Tuesday, 7 July, but the voyage was cancelled last week by the Aydın governor’s office. The decision also removed Istanbul and Kuşadası from the ship’s itinerary.
The cancellation drew attention in the international press, particularly in the United States, because the ship is known as LGBTQ+ friendly and carries more than 1,000 crew members.
Atlantis Events, which organised the trip, said the new route would replace the Turkish stops with destinations in Egypt and Greece. The company said the ship would visit Cairo and Crete instead of Türkiye.
Rich Campbell, chief executive of Atlantis Events, criticised the decision in an interview with CNN. He said: “I am very concerned that a country believes it has the right to choose which tourists it allows in and which it does not.”
Campbell also said the travel disruption was the first time in the company’s 36-year history that a trip had been blocked because of the passengers it carried.
Virgin Voyages, the cruise line backed by Richard Branson, has not publicly detailed any further changes to the itinerary. The company’s Scarlet Lady has previously been marketed to a broad adult leisure audience and has become known for its strong support of LGBTQ+ travellers.
The episode comes as destination access and tourism policies remain sensitive issues for cruise operators serving multiple countries in a single itinerary. For passengers, the change means a replacement of two Turkish ports with calls in Egypt and Greece, after a cancellation that was confirmed days before departure.
Türkiye’s decision was reported widely by international media and has added to discussion about the limits governments can place on cruise tourism. For one of the world’s best-known cruise brands, the rerouting of Scarlet Lady was a rare and highly visible schedule change.
