Geopolitics of the Sea: Cruise Industry and the Principle of Extraterritoriality

Sa？etak Geopolitics of the sea is a new and unexplored area of research, although it is wide enough to have become a distinct component within the geopolitical theory in general. Moreover, the cruise industry, the fastest-growing branch of tourism and one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, has been neglected for a long time and there is not enough literature dealing with it or systematizing all the effects that the industry is producing. This paper is a synthesis of two unexplored areas of research, which are combined in the third chapter to form a geopolitics of the cruise industry, in order to encompass two complex subjects within one term. This paper has proven that the geopolitics of the cruise industry has to become a significant matter in the research of geopolitics, international law of the sea and navigation since cruise lines are slowly starting to overtake countries as the most significant entities in the geopolitics of the sea. The legal system, the geopolitical theoretical frameworks, and coastal states need to implement various changes as soon as possible in order to adjust to the dynamic demands that the new era of tourism, marked by mega-cruisers, is making