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Pamukkale is targeting 1 million tourists this year

In Pamukkale, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, tourism professionals want to reach the annual target of 1 million tourists with the rapid increase in the number of visitors during the post-epidemic normalization process.

Tourists who come to Pamukkale, which is world-famous for its white travertines, can closely explore the unique beauty of nature and ancient cities under the new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) measures.

Mask and social distance measures are strictly controlled in the region, where most of the domestic guests have started to enter since the day the controlled normalization started.

Pamukkale, one of the ruins that attract the most tourists in Turkey, hosted 2 million 580 thousand 245 people in 2019, and closed last year with 625 thousand 120 visitors after the epidemic that affected the whole world.

The ruins, which rapidly increased the number of visitors with the gradual normalization, hosted 250 thousand 158 visitors in January-June, an increase of approximately 50% compared to the same period of the previous year.

In Pamukkale, where the number of foreign tourists has increased as Russia restarted its flights, tourism professionals are preparing for the Eid al-Adha.

EXPECTATION OF 10-15 THOUSAND DAILY VISITORS

Gazi Murat Sen, Chairman of Denizli Touristic Hotel and Operators Association (DENTUROD), told Anadolu Agency (AA) that they are looking forward to Pamukkale’s return to its good old days.

Explaining that the reservations made from abroad are promising and that some hotels are starting to fill up, Sen said:

“The number of foreign guests in our region decreased considerably during the pandemic period, especially in the January-March period. We are in the process of recovery. While an average of 500 visitors came to Pamukkale daily in January, we started to host more than 5 thousand guests today. We believe that we will reach 10-15 thousand daily visitors in July and August.”

Noting that they could not host expats last year due to the epidemic, Sen continued his words as follows:

“From next week, we will see a large number of expatriate citizens coming from all over Europe. With the landing of Russian planes in our country, Russian tourist traffic began to be experienced. We estimate that a large part of the 100 thousand Russians who came to the country will come to Pamukkale and stay for one day.

If there is no increase in the epidemic, the season will be extended. As of this year, we aim to host over 1 million tourists in Pamukkale. If we achieve this goal, we will consider ourselves successful. If the Far East market opens, we expect to reach higher figures by revising the 1 million target. But our main target is for 2022. We believe that next year we will surpass the records we broke in 2019.”

Explaining that the thermal facilities and hotels in the region are continuing their preparations for the Eid al-Adha, and the demand is pleasing, Sen said, “The occupancy rates in hotels approached 95% during the Eid-al-Adha and summer season. We think that the guests will turn to cultural tourism, especially since there is no place left in the coastal areas.”

Source: Sabah / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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