Nearly 1 mln tourists visit Turkey for health tourism

Turkey attracted nearly 1 million people for health tourism, said an industry official on March 19.

“Thermal tourism contributes to Turkey's economy with healing waters, as well as seas, rivers and lakes,” Yavuz Yılık, head of the Thermal Health and Tourism Association (TESTUD), told Anadolu Agency.

Yılık stressed that Turkey is one of the world's top seven countries for thermal springs, with about 1,500 natural hot spring water resources.

“Protecting our health-giving healing waters, using them properly, and passing them down to future generations with the same qualities is also important for the country's future,” he added.

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Turkey charms more tourists from target markets in January

The number of foreign tourists visiting Turkey in January this year was 1.5 million, a rise in target tourism markets - the Far East, Europe and the Americas.

According to Culture and Tourism Ministry border entrance and exit statistics, foreign tourists in Turkey in January surged by 5.33 percent year over year, with the number of visitors from the target markets increasing by 40 percent, the ministry said in a statement.

Bulgarians led the way with 133,806 tourists - almost 9 percent of foreign visitors - followed by Georgia with 112,376 tourists, 7.3 percent of all visitors, and Germany with 102,120 tourists, 6.6 percent. Germany was followed by Iran and the Russian Federation.

The number of tourists from Taiwan increased 43.75 percent, while South Korea, the U.S., Russia and Spain increased by 42.95 percent, 42.18 percent, 34.2 percent and 29.8 percent, respectively.

The number of visitors from France increased by 18.44 percent, followed by Germany with 17.55 percent, Italy with 15.78 percent and the Netherlands with 11.75 percent. Tourists from Poland rose by 68.26 percent.

Istanbul, the largest city by population and a top tourist draw, attracted nearly 60 percent of all visitors - nearly 919,000.

The northwestern province of Edirne, which borders Bulgaria and Greece, had the second-highest number of foreigners - over 190,000 - in January, followed by the Black Sea province of Artvin, bordering Georgia, with nearly 119,000 foreigners.

Official data also showed air travel was the most popular way for foreigners to reach Turkey, with 1.1 million foreign travelers flying, while over 408,000 used roadways.

On the other hand, Turkey's holiday resort Antalya has become the most popular tourist destination for Germans, according to market researcher GfK.

Summer bookings made earlier this year showed Antalya has become the number one choice of German tourists, followed by the Spanish island of Mallorca and the Greek island of Crete, Nuremberg-based GfK said in a new report released ahead of next week's Berlin tourism fair.

Sales revenues from Turkey bookings have ballooned 58 percent, showing growing demand among German

holidaymakers for beach holidays on Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.''

"Turkey is celebrating the comeback of the year," the report said, adding that it expects strong demand to continue in the coming weeks. Turkey aims to attract more than 5.5 million German tourists this year.

Turkey enjoyed a boom in foreigners last year with a double-digit increase in the number of foreign tourists and tourism income.

It welcomed 39.5 million foreigners, a 21.84 percent increase year-on-year, according to Culture and Tourism Ministry data, while the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) revealed that tourism income surged 12.3 percent to $29.5 billion.

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Turkey tops 33 European countries in tourism growth

Turkey was the top performing tourist destination in 2018 and recorded the highest growth in the number of tourists among 33 European countries. According to the European Travel Commission's (ETC) "European Tourism in 2018: Trends & Prospects" report, the number of tourists visiting Turkey last year hit an all-time high and increased by 22 percent year-on-year. The report added that the number of tourists visiting the country exceeded 40 million for the first time and totaled 47 million in 2018.

The ETC highlighted that Turkey recovered quickly from the effects of the July 15, 2016, coup attempt. It added that the country saw a significant increase in the arrivals, particularly from Russia. Accordingly, the number of Russians visiting Turkey was 1.7 million higher than prior peak levels. Some 6.4 million Russian tourists visited Turkey in 2018.

The report also noted that hotels have been able to increase average room rates (ADR) in both Turkish lira and euro terms – in the month of December as well as in 2018 as a whole and that Turkey remains amongst the cheapest destinations within the accommodation dataset.

"The reversion to norms in terms of market share of Mediterranean destinations outlined in the last quarterly report appears to be continuing, with Turkey continuing to regain market share," it said.

The report added that Turkey saw growth in arrivals from Germany of 25.6 percent over January to November 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. Turkey is expecting record German arrivals in 2019.

On the other hand, British tourists have also flocked back to Turkey with the Turkish lira declining in value more than sterling. Arrivals were up 36.5 percent in the period January to November compared to the same months in 2017, the report noted.

"Growth of U.S. arrivals in Turkey was also very strong at 32.0 percent based on data to November," it said. Among others, Turkey continued to benefit from China's announcement of 2018 as "Turkey Tourism Year," with arrivals up by 67.1 percent on a year earlier. "As with most non-European source markets, there was strong growth of 74.4 percent in the number of Indian tourists visiting in Turkey. Turkey has been targeting the Indian wedding tourism market in particular," the report noted.

The ETC said that despite Europe's economic growth prospects faltering in recent months travel growth too, from, and within the region was robust in 2018, according to the latest available data. Thirty-two of 33 reporting destinations welcomed more arrivals and/or overnights compared to a year ago. Only the U.K. reported declines.

It highlighted that European tourism demand remained on solid footing with a 6 percent upswing in international tourist arrivals in 2018 over the year prior. "The most visited region in the world was able to sustain growth despite downside risks stemming from trade tensions, uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the economic slowdown in the Euro Area and China, all keeping 2019 growth prospects in question," it said. Virtually all reporting destinations (32 out of 33) registered some form of expansion, ETC said.

Following Turkey, Serbia and Malta were the countries registering the highest increase in the number of tourists in 2018, both with 15 percent. They were followed by Montenegro with 14 percent and Latvia, which was the only Central/Eastern European destination that enjoyed double-digit expansion, at 10 percent. "The U.K. [-5.3 percent] was the only market in negative territory," the report noted.

Among others, travel demand from the U.S. remained on firm footing. Growth from this market was fueled by a strengthened U.S. dollar against the euro and sterling, both increasing Europe's affordability as a tourism destination.

"In 2018 European destinations welcomed around 33 million international tourist arrivals from this market, up 8 percent from the previous year. The U.S. outbound travel, however, is expected to slow down owing to its decelerating economic momentum and consumer spending," the report read.

ETC said expansion continues in the eurozone, however, adverse risks such as tensions in financial markets, uncertainty surrounding the U.K.'s divorce plans from the EU and worrisome forward-looking indicators bear on growth prospects for 2019.

"Notwithstanding, the European tourism industry has yet again proved resilient in 2018 and accounts for over half [51 percent] of worldwide tourist arrivals. Looking ahead, growth in international tourist arrivals to the region is expected to hover around 3 percent in 2019," it added.

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Iran, Turkey to cooperate in tourism industry

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Iran and Turkey will cooperate in tourism industry. This is provided for by the relevant document signed between the head of the Trade Union of the Chiefs of Offices of Iranian passenger services and tourism, Hormatullah Raffia and the head of the Association of Travel Agencies of Turkey (Tursab), Firuz Baglykaya.

Each year, eight million tourists travel from Turkey and Iran to overseas, Trend reports.

So, about 60 percent of eight million Iranian tourists go to Turkey and Iraq. About 320,000 tourists come to Iran from Turkey,” Raffia said.

The head of the union said that Iran intends to reach a balance with Turkey in the movement of tourist flow.

At the signing ceremony, the head of Tursab Firuz Baglykaya said that there is no balance between the two countries in the tourism sector. For creation of it there is work to do.

Baglykaya stated that the tourism potential of Turkey will be presented at the Tehran Tourism Exhibition.

In addition, the head of Tursab expressed confidence that the signing of the agreement will lead to an increase in tourist flow to Iran and Turkey.

So, from economic point of view Turkey has more actual resources to promote tourism and keep its advantage over the Iran in tourist flow. There are several reasons of this noticeable gap between the number of tourist visiting both of the countries, but main reason is well-established tourism oriented policy of Turkey, which allows to realize whole existing potential of the country and develop this sector by extensive and intensive ways.

There are plenty of  reforms, which have been implemented in the Iran towards  simplification of the procedure for obtaining entry visas, in particular, the practice of issuing 30-day visas directly to Iranian airports for citizens of 180 countries has been introduced, and an online hotel booking system for Iran operates. Visas can now be obtained electronically from Iranian consulates or international airports.

Additionally, taking into account that Iran is the center of Shiite Islam - is one of the main centers of Muslim pilgrimage, so religious tourism is very developed and the most important place from this point of view is the city of Mashhad which attracts a huge number of Iranian and foreign tourists (a total of more than 4 million people a year).

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100-day plan to supercharge Turkish tourism: Official

100-day action plan to be start of Turkish tourism sector's transformation, says association of travel agencies chair

ISTANBUL:

Projects in the government’s 100-day action plan to supercharge Turkey’s tourism sector will make the world sit up and see Turkey as a major destination, a top tourism official told Anadolu Agency on Monday. 

"These kinds of projects with cultural and art activities will bring Turkey to the global stage and make it a new destination for tourists with large disposable income," said Firuz Baglikaya, head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB). 

The 100-day plan, unveiled last week by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will be the start of the Turkish tourism sector's transformation, he added. 

Projects to boost Turkey’s tourist draw are a major part of the action plan. 

The plan includes projects to attract more Chinese tourists, improved travel infrastructure investments, and opening Gobeklitepe, the world's oldest temple, in Turkey’s southeast, to visitors.

Baglikaya said flight service to Far Eastern countries such as China and India will be expanded once Istanbul’s new airport opens this fall. 

"We aim to attract more high-income tourists from China and India," he said. 

Mentioning how China declared 2018 the Year of Turkish Tourism, Baglikaya said the number of Chinese tourists visiting Turkey jumped 93 percent in the first half of this year. 

"We will close the year with a record high number of Chinese tourists," he said. 

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Festivals in Turkey's tourist spots to boost number of Indian visitors

Indian envoy to Ankara Sanjay Bhattacharyya announced that the embassy plans to organize a festival in Turkey, which is expected to boost the number of Indian tourists to the country. The festival will highlight the strong ties between the two countries, the ambassador said, and noted that Indians living in India or anywhere else in the world will prefer Turkey more and more as a destination. He also strongly emphasized that the festival will contribute immensely to commercial and tourism ties between Turkey and India. Ambassador Bhattacharyya highlighted that bilateral relations between Turkey and India are getting stronger and that the embassy tries to improve ties in all aspects.

To improve economic and cultural relations between the two countries, an Indian festival will be organized in various tourism destinations in Turkey, the ambassador said, emphasizing that tourism is an important for developing and strengthening ties. Shooting some Indian movies in Turkey, the ambassador added, has boosted the interest of Indians in the country. Thus, festival venues will be in Ankara, Istanbul and Cappadocia. After negotiating with the Culture and Tourism Ministry, more tourist destinations will be added, according to the ambassador.

Bhattacharyya drew attention to the rising number of Indian tourists visiting Turkey and stressed that the increase has been facilitated by Turkish Airlines (THY) flights to Mumbai and New Delhi.
Indians consider Antalya the capital of tourism

Ambassador Bhattacharyya said that tourism facilities on the Mediterranean coast that hosted a number of splendid Indian weddings would see continually rising demand. "For wedding events, Indians consider Antalya the capital of tourism. Indians have extended families, and when all the relatives and friends of the couples want to attend a wedding abroad, they need hotels with large capacities. Therefore, facilities in Antalya meet this need.

Turkey is becoming more and more popular in India with around 200,000 tourists visiting the country. "The friendly Turkish-Indian ties continue to improve in political, economic and cultural terms. Tourism relations between the two countries are very promising for the future and the number of Indians who want to discover Turkey is growing," Bhattacharyya said.

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