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Minister Ersoy: Turkiye is in the world’s super league in tourism

Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy pointed out that Turkiye is in the world’s super league in tourism and said, “Our target is much bigger in 2028. We will raise the bar to $100 billion in tourism income.”

In his speech at the opening of the 13th International Resort Tourism Congress held at the Nest Congress Center in the Belek Tourism Region in Antalya, Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy congratulated all teachers on November 24, Teachers’ Day.

Stating that they have come to the end of another full year in tourism, Ersoy stated that they targeted $55.6 billion of tourism income at the beginning of the year, but despite the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaras, the election process and Israel’s attacks on Gaza, they were very close to the target.

Giving information about tourism figures, Ersoy said:

“The total number of visitors we hosted in the January-October period of 2023 exceeded 50.2 million people. The number of foreign tourists who preferred Turkiye for their holidays increased by 11.58% in these 10 months compared to the same period of the previous year. We have reached $42 billion in tourism revenues in the January-September 2023 period. We are pleased to see that we have achieved a 20% increase compared to the $35 billion revenue we achieved in the same period last year.”

Stating that a significant success has been achieved in per capita nightly spending figures, Ersoy stated that the per capita nightly spending figure, which was $65 in 2017, increased to $89 last year as a result of the successful policies implemented, and that they plan to complete it with $100 this year.

Minister Ersoy noted that they increased the total bed capacity of accommodation facilities, which was approximately 800 thousand in 2002, by 175%, to 2.2 million as of November, and that they are approaching the completion of a very necessary process in qualified tourism by making it mandatory for all facilities to be certified by the Ministry.

Pointing out that Turkiye is in the world’s super league in tourism, Ersoy said, “Our target is much bigger in 2028. We will raise the bar to $100 billion in tourism income. Hopefully, as always, we will achieve our targets one by one with the devoted work and support of our valuable sector stakeholders.

Promotional work in 200 countries with TGA

Stating that Turkiye faces crises today as it did in the past due to its geopolitical location, Ersoy stated that we are always faced with regional conflicts and wars, natural disasters and global problems.

For this reason, Ersoy reminded that, as the Ministry, they established the Turkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA) in 2019 in order to increase immunity against global and regional crises, to bring qualified tourists to Turkiye and to increase tourism income targets. He stated that TGA has carried out many successful works, from communication management to promotional activities during crisis periods.

Explaining that they made intensive promotions on the national channels of 33 countries with TGA, Ersoy stated that they carried out digital promotion activities in approximately 200 countries. Stating that the “Go Turkiye” website, which is our official tourism platform, is published in 10 different languages, Ersoy said that this platform has experience titles on nearly 60 topics such as history, health, nature, faith, bicycle and golf tourism and gastronomy.

Reminding that members of the press, influencers, tour operators and opinion leaders from all over the world were hosted in Turkiye, Ersoy continued his words as follows:

“As of November 20, a total of 6 thousand 257 people, including 3 thousand 140 press members and influencers and 3 thousand 117 tour operators from 85 different countries, participated in 424 separate hospitality events held in 73 different cities of Turkiye since the beginning of the year. During this period, approximately 1680 people from 75 countries were hosted in Antalya alone. We will continue our work until the end of the year and include all 81 provinces in these hospitality events. As all these figures show, there is no doubt that we are the country that currently carries out the most intensive advertising, promotion and PR work in the world.”

Culture Road Festival will reach 35 cities in 2028

Minister Ersoy stated that they attach importance to product diversity in tourism and that they have undertaken important work, especially in cultural tourism.

Stating that they have spread the Culture Road Festival project, which was launched in Istanbul Beyoglu in 2021, to wider audiences, Ersoy said that this year. He noted that they set out with the slogan “11 festivals in 100 days on the 100th anniversary of the Republic” and that they carried out more than 5 thousand events in nearly 400 venues in 11 provinces within the scope of the Turkiye Culture Road Festivals.

Stating that they will further expand the impact area of the festivals by including 5 cities in this chain every year, Ersoy stated that they aim to hold Turkiye Culture Road Festivals in 35 cities in 2028.

Pointing out that gastronomy is one of the most important product titles in tourism, Ersoy stated that they are working hard to give cities a “gastrocity” identity.

Reminding that Istanbul was included in the Michelin Guide in 2022, Ersoy noted that this year, the Michelin Guide included Izmir and Bodrum in its Turkiye selection, and 111 restaurants were included in the guide’s 2024 selection. Ersoy stated that he believes that Antalya will also take its place in the guide in the coming years.

Turkiye is assertive in sustainable tourism

Mehmet Nuri Ersoy emphasized that one of the most important trends of the future in tourism will be “sustainable tourism” and said that they, as Turkiye, are carrying out effective work in this field.

Ersoy stated that they started to implement the “Safe and Sustainable Tourism Program” and that they signed a 3-year protocol with the “Global Sustainable Tourism Council”, the world’s highest level sustainability platform, for this purpose. He stated that with this protocol, Turkiye became the first country in the world to make an agreement with the government to develop a national program in the field of sustainable tourism.

Stating that 7,568 facilities received the first stage certificate and 634 facilities received the third stage certificate within the scope of the Sustainable Tourism Program, Ersoy said:

“Within the scope of the ongoing studies, the certification process of 809 of our facilities continues. 1357 of these 9 thousand 11 facilities included in the certification process in total are located in Antalya. In other words, Antalya continues its leadership in tourism by strongly supporting it with the importance and sensitivity it attaches to sustainability.”

Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz

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