Turkey boosted by latest tourism figures

Turkey boosted by latest tourism figures – Turkey may be putting troubled times on the tourism front behind them.

The Turkish Statistical Institution (Turk Stat) has unveiled its latest report showing Turkish tourism revenue rebounded by 18.9% year-on-year in 2017.

Reaching its peak in 2014 with a record-breaking 34 billion USD, tourism revenues dropped drastically in the following two years following terrorist attacks and a failed coup.

Following intense security campaigns tourism started to recover in 2017 and revenue for the total year was $26.3 billion – $21.5 billion of it is credited to independent travel while package tours made up the result by contributing $4.8 billion.

“This news is in line with expectations for 2018 that the Turkish tourism industry can bounce back to 2014 figures and achieve its 2023 goals to be one of the top visited destinations in the world. The flight market between the UK and Turkey is set to play a major part in this comeback after many UK airlines increased their seat capacity,” said Julian Walker, MD of leading Turkish property agency Spot Blue.

• The figures mirror the ambitions of Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, Professor Dr Numan Kurtulmuş (above), whose strategic vision is to use travel and tourism as the engine for improving relationships between countries and cultures.

He has set a target of 50 million international visitors to Turkey by 2023.

And while that would be excellent news for tourism revenues, Mr. Kurtulmuş said the most valuable result of increasing tourism would be a foundation for a stronger global community through the better sharing of ideas and values between cultures.

“Few countries have as wide a variety of tourism and cultural attractions as Turkey, including – and, perhaps most importantly – it’s figurative and physical position as a bridge between East and West

“We see this strength as vital to our vision for bringing communities together, and we will invest heavily in public and private partnerships to ensure we are developing these tourism products to diversify our markets and audiences,” he said.