SA tourism roadshow to target Turkish travel trade

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa's national tourism agency is set to conduct a roadshow for the first time in Istanbul, Turkey, to create platforms for access to that market, it said on Thursday.

The January 30 roadshow will provide 11 operators, including small, medium and micro-enterprises, an opportunity to engage with approximately 50 specially selected Middle East and Turkish travel trade companies, South African Tourism said in a statement.

It will the 23rd East Mediterranean International Tourism & Travel exhibition in Instabul, at which SA Tourism and trade partner will participate.

"Turkey is a strategically important market to SA Tourism as it is a springboard to the rest of the Middle East, India, and South East Asia region," SA Tourism said.

Factors that make South Africa an attractive destination for Turkish visitors include the fact that there are no visa requirements for travellers from both ends, and for Turkish tourists there is favourable airlift, said Sthembiso Dlamini, SA Tourism’s chief operating officer.

"This means there are direct flights from Turkey to South Africa with Turkish Airlines coupled with a sufficient number of frequencies offered by other airlines," Dlamini said.

"This has led to 12 139 Turkish tourist arrivals between January and October 2018, a 2.4 percent increase from the previous year."

Studies show that Turkish families visit South Africa for the culture, scenic beauty, beaches and safaris, while young tourists tend to be drawn by action and adventure tours.

Halaal tourism is also a factor. Since most Turkish travellers are Muslim, South Africa is well positioned to cater to their needs through a wide array of halaal restaurants and eateries across all nine provinces.

South Africa was ranked among the top 10 most Muslim-friendly travel destinations for 2018 by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in the annual MasterCard-Crescent Rating Global Muslim Travel Index.

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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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The 6th Interdisciplinary Tourism Research Conference to be held in Cappadocia, Turkey

Organised by the journal ANATOLIA, the 6th Interdisciplinary Tourism Research Conference will take place 2 - 7 October 2018 in Cappadocia, Turkey. 

The conference aims particularly to emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of tourism, hospitality and leisure research and attracts submissions in two categories: First, it encourages those faculty members and/or graduate students studying in other fields, but have research interests on tourism. Second, for those contributors with a background in tourism, the paper should be written by at least two multiple authors and each author represents a different discipline.

Invited speakers 

The list of our guest speakers is diverse in their affiliations, gender, and fields of expertise:

• Tej Vir Singh, Centre for Tourism Research & Development, India 
• Haiyan Song, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, SAR China
• Marion Joppe, University of Guelph, Canada
• Chris Cooper, Leeds Beckett University, UK

Tej Vir Singh Recognition Award 

This year’s award is dedicated to Professor Tej Vir Singh of the Centre for Tourism Research & Development, India, in recognition of his lifelong contribution and social role played to the institutionalisation of tourism studies, both nationally and internationally, from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Pre-conference seminars: 

• Antonia Correia – University of Algarve & Universidade Europeia, Portugal
• Maheshvari Naidu – University of KwaZulu–Natal, South Africa
• Ana Isabel Rodrigues – Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Portugal
• Husseini Olya – Oxford Brookes University, UK 

For more information about the conference, visit anatoliajournal.com/interdisciplinary


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