Dear Mr. President, how do you think 2017
\nwill be in terms of Turkish Tourism? What
\nare your expectations?
\nFor the Turkish tourism industry 2016
\nproved to be a very tough year. Many events,
\nsuch as the plane crisis with Russia, the
\nrefugee problem, geopolitical developments
\naround our country, rising terrorist incidents
\nworldwide, and the treacherous coup attempt
\non July 15 all negatively impacted on the
\ntourism industry. According to the Republic
\nof Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism,
\nthe number of foreign tourists visiting our
\ncountry in 2016 decreased by 30.05% to 25.3
\nmillion. Likewise, tourism revenue in 2016
\ndecreased by 29.74% to just over US$22 billon
\nAs a result, due to the events I mentioned,
\nwe ended 2016 with a negative balance. To
\nsummarize, 2016 was a year in which every
\npossible adverse event happened together,
\nresulting in a significant decline in almost
\nevery source market that sends tourists
\nto Turkey. According to data obtained from
\nthe Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture
\nand Tourism, the number of foreign tourists
\nvisiting Turkey in January-February 2017
\ndecreased by 8.12% compared with the same
\nmonths of the previous year, to 2.22 million.
\nThe positive development during this period
\nis the significant increase in the number of
\ntourists visiting from what is primarily our
\ncountry\u2019s second market, Russia, as well as
\nfrom other countries, such as Azerbaijan,
\nIran, Georgia, Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
Even so, neither the decrease in the overall
\nnumber of visitors in January-February, nor
\nthe increase in the overall number of visitors
\nfrom Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran will enable
\nus to make predictions for the whole of 2017.
\nThis is because each market has its own
\ndynamic. We need a little more time before
\nprospects for 2017 will become clear.
\nThe fact that the events that caused the
\nnegative impacts during 2016 are decreasing
\nand provided no new negativities occur, will
\nsurely contribute positively to the increase in
\nthe number of tourists and tourism revenues
\nin the coming periods.<\/p>\n
What should a tourist pay attention to when
\nplanning a holiday in Turkey?
\nTurkey, despite the wars in the surrounding
\ncountries and the domestic terrorist
\nincidents, is one of the safest countries in
\nthe region and the world. Tourists can come
\nto visit all our regions, all our cities, with
\npeace of mind. They can be sure that they
\nwill find themselves in a environment more
\ncomfortable than their own. We recommend
\nthat they choose their destinations and their
\nmeans of transport based on their holiday
\nexpectations. Following the written and visual
\nmedia about our country will guide them and
\nhelp them make their decisions more easily.<\/p>\n
What do you think about the alternative
\ntourism options Turkey offers?
\nIn terms of its visitors and the amount of
\nrevenue they generate, Turkey is one of the
\nmost important tourism destinations in the
\nworld. According to data from the United
\nNations World Tourism Organization, Turkey is
\nthe 6th most visited country in the world, and
\nis placed 12th in terms of tourism revenue.
\nThere is no doubt that mass tourism plays
\na very important role in Turkey\u2019s success. A
\nsignificant number of our country\u2019s touristic
\nvisitors come during the summer months.
\nWithout hindering the efforts being made for
\nmass tourism, which take Turkey to the higher
\nlevels in terms of world ranking, we need to
\ndevelop alternative tourism options that could
\ndiversify tourism and make it a year-round
\neconomic activity. If we are able to spread
\nthis increase in demand during the summer
\nseason throughout the year, we will be able
\nto make our success in tourism permanent.
\nIndeed, in recent years important steps
\nhave been taken in this regard. Even though
\nthis perception has begun to to change as a
\nresult of the actions taken in time, we need
\nto concentrate on areas such as alternative
\ntourism options, culture tourism, congress
\nand meeting tourism, incentive tours,
\nshopping tourism, health tourism and faith
\ntourism. There is much that can be done
\nin these areas of tourism as they can be
\nsignificant sources of revenue for our country.
\nWhich regions of Turkey do tourists coming
\nfrom the Middle East and Gulf States
\nprefer?
\nA majority of the visitors from the Middle
\nEast and Gulf States prefer Istanbul,
\nwhereas our thermal tourism centers, such
\nas Bursa and Yalova, have been in serious
\ndemand in recent years. The highlands in the
\nEastern Black Sea region are also among the
\ndestinations that are particularly attracting
\nthe attention of Arab tourists. Our guests from
\nthe Gulf Countries who wish to have their
\nholidays by the sea have become interested
\nin destinations like Marmaris, Bodrum and
\nAntalya in recent years.<\/p>\n
Citizens from the GCC (Gulf Cooperation
\nCouncil) countries in particular have a
\nserious love for Turkey. Do you have any
\nspecial efforts for this region?
\nThe Ministry of Culture and Tourism\u2019s
\npublicity strategy has played a very serious
\nrole in the success Turkey has achieved in
\ntourism. In this process, many institutions
\nrepresenting the tourism industry, primarily
\nT\u00dcRSAB, have made significant efforts to
\npromote Turkey abroad. However, it is also
\ntrue that we have to increase our publicity
\nand marketing efforts much more in order
\nthat we can reach higher levels in world
\ntourism. In this context, T\u00dcRSAB is fulfilling
\nits responsibilities. As T\u00dcRSAB, we are
\nparticipating in international tourism fairs
\nand promoting Turkey\u2019s tourism potential
\nin other countries. With the Travel Turkey
\nInternational Tourism Fair we organize,
\nwe are trying to attract the attention of the
\ninternational tourism community. As well as
\nintroducing our country with the workshop
\nevents we organize abroad, we also carry
\nout activities to realize the international
\norganizations in Turkey. In this context, we
\ntook part in the T\u0130TE-Tehran International
\nTourism Fair, which was held for the 10th
\ntime in the Iranian capital, Tehran, between
\n6-9 February, and we will also participate in
\nthe Arabian Travel Market (ATM), which will
\nbe held in Dubai from 24-27 April 2017.
\nHow does the number of Arab tourists
\ncoming to our country compare with the
\nnumber of tourists in general? Do you have
\nthe data for this?
\nAccording to Republic of Turkey Ministry
\nof Culture and Tourism, the number of
\nforeign tourists visiting our country in 2016
\nwas 25.3 million. Of these, 3.8 million were
\nvisitors from the Middle East and the Gulf
\nStates. We are hoping that the number of
\nvisitors coming to our country in 2017 from
\nthe Middle East and the Gulf States will be in
\nthe region of 4 to 4.5 million.<\/p>\n
What needs to be done in order to increase
\nthe number of tourists coming from the
\nMiddle East and the Gulf States?
\nWe can list what needs to be done under the
\nfollowing headings.
\nBy increasing the number of guides who
\nspeak Arabic and Persian.
\nBy increasing publicity and advertising
\nactivities.
\nBy increasing the number of brochures and
\npromotional materials published in Arabic
\nand Persian that publicize Turkey.
\nBy increasing publicity about Turkey on the
\ninternet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Mr. President, how do you think 2017 will be in terms of Turkish Tourism? What are your expectations? For the Turkish tourism industry 2016 proved to be a very tough year. Many events, such as the plane crisis with Russia, the refugee problem, geopolitical developments around our country, rising terrorist incidents worldwide, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genel-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions\/414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkeyishere.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}