A prolonged nine-day Eid holiday in the upcoming month is expected to revive the domestic tourism market, according to a top industry representative Thursday with some 20 million trips estimated to be made during this period.
“We anticipate that the total economic volume of all travels during the mid-term and holiday periods will reach around TL 100 billion (around $3.1 billion),” Firuz Bağlıkaya, head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB), said.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Bağlıkaya said that extending the holiday to nine days is very valuable for the sector. He stressed that making the decision early would allow citizens and travel agencies to plan ahead.
He also mentioned that the decision would further stimulate the domestic market and said that the robust domestic tourism movement “plays a vital role in the development of our sector and our country.”
“Our travel agencies have prepared tours to many cultural destinations and for every budget. When the holiday and school breaks coincide, we invite our citizens to vacation all around our country,” he noted.
Bağlıkaya noted that the combination of Ramadan Bayram, also known as Eid-al-Fitr,and the second mid-term break starting on April 6 will generate significant activity in the domestic market, expecting around 20 million trips, including visits to hometowns and relatives.
He anticipated that approximately 2 million of these trips would directly involve tourism activities. “We expect around 1.5 million entries to tourism facilities during the holiday period, reaching up to 2 million, including other types of accommodations,” he said.
“We anticipate that the economic volume encompassing all travels during the mid-term and holiday periods, including visits to hometowns, relatives and tourism activities, will reach around TL 100 billion.”
Cultural tours
Bağlıkaya highlighted that travel agencies have prepared alternative tours covering all parts of the country, with high interest in hotels in the Mediterranean region, as well as nature and cultural tours.
“In cultural tours, the southeastern Anatolian region, the Black Sea and Cappadocia are prominent. Our travel agencies have offered three-, four-, and five-night tours to the liking of our citizens. With the extension of the Ramadan Bayram holiday to nine days, demand for six- and seven-night tours will also begin. Currently, there is a focus on three- and four-night tours,” Bağlıkaya explained.
He also pointed out that the biggest obstacle regarding international tours is visa issues.
“Unfortunately, visa problems persist. Therefore, citizens who want to go to European countries but have their visa applications rejected turn to visa-free Balkan tours and destinations like Egypt. Typically, three-night, four-day and four-night, five-day tours are more in demand,” he said.
Furthermore, he also mentioned that early bookings from abroad to Türkiye are also going well.
“Our country has an extremely high tourism potential. Türkiye is one of the countries that host the most foreign visitors,” he said.
He noted significant increases in reservations from countries like Germany, Russia and the U.K. for Türkiye, but pointed out that the visitors primarily concentrate in three or four cities, indicating a need for change.
“Based on this idea, we have implemented the ‘Tourism Century’ project to spread tourism, one of the locomotive sectors of our economy, to all corners of our country and throughout the year,” he noted.
“We will continue to take necessary steps to spread tourism throughout the year and across the country, both to attract more tourists from abroad and to increase our tourism revenue.”
Source: dailysabah