Turkey's election body limits recount in Istanbul

AK Party’s representative on Turkey's election board​ said that the party's appeal to cancel the election results in an Istanbul district – on grounds of "organised irregularities" – will be decided by the council after Tuesday.

Turkey’s Supreme Election Council on Monday partially rejected an appeal by the governing Justice and Development (AK) Party to recount all votes in Istanbul except for 51 ballot boxes in 21 districts.

AK Party has appealed the votes to be recounted in 32 districts in Istanbul. 

Recep Ozel, the AK Party’s representative on the election board, told reporters that the party's appeal to cancel the election results in Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district will be decided by the council after Tuesday.

"Supreme Election Council has made its decision for 31 districts out of 32. The fate for the district of Buyukcekmece is postponed. We will discuss it after tomorrow because of other issues like votes affected in district municipality and metropolitan municipality," Ozel said.

The party is calling for a repeat of elections in the district, alleging "organised irregularities."

Ozel said the party will continue its legal efforts to contest the elections in Istanbul.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also raised concerns about "organised interference" in the Istanbul elections earlier Monday.

"We, as the political party, have detected organised crime and some organised activities," Erdogan told reporters ahead of his departure from Istanbul for Moscow.

According to unofficial results, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem Imamoglu leads Istanbul with AK Party's candidate Binali Yildirim following closely behind.

However, the AK Party has said a recount might change the results. 

Millions of Turkish voters cast their votes nationwide end of March in the local elections to choose Turkey's mayors, city council members, neighbourhood officials and members of the elder councils for the next five years. 

According to unofficial results, the AK Party is leading in 15 metropolitan municipalities and 24 smaller cities.

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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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Why terrorism in Turkey will not have an effect on its tourism market

According to Trading Economics, the number of inbound tourists to Turkey rose to 1.95 million in December 2018, up by 14.5% from the year before, with the majority of tourists being from Bulgaria, Germany, Georgia, Iran and Russia.

Although Turkey welcomes millions of tourists each year, it is also one of the countries that suffer most from terrorist attacks. According to public sector information website gov.uk, there is a high risk of terrorism taking place in Turkey due to the high number of terrorist organisations.

Many terrorist attacks have taken place in Turkey over the past years, such as the attack in the Reina nightclub in Istanbul on 1 January 2017, the explosion close to the Besiktas football stadium in Istanbul on 10 December 2016, the bomb detonation close to the Governor’s office in Adana on 24 November 2016 and the attack at Ataturk International Airport on 28 June 2016.

These four are only a few examples of attacks that took place in the country; there are many other examples of terrorist incidents. Because Turkey can be seen as a high-risk destination, many are stating that tourist arrival numbers have dropped significantly.

According to Statista, the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Turkey in 2015 was 36,245 and then in 2016, this number significantly dropped down to 25,352. In 2017, tourist arrivals increased again, up to 32,410.

Following this, according to Turkish pro-government daily newspaper Daily Sabah, in the first few months of 2018, almost 7.8 million foreigners travelled to Turkey, and the Culture and Tourism Ministry stated that the arrivals number increased by 32.55% each year. With these statistics, it is clear that tourism can be unpredictable, with constantly changing figures.

My research

Many suggest that terrorism is the main factor that affects Turkey’s tourism market. However, through the research that I conducted throughout my final year of university, I established that there are many other factors at play and that ultimately terrorism has not, and will not, have a long-term effect on Turkey’s tourism market.

The aim of my research was to establish the extent that terrorism has affected the destination image of Turkey. I produced an online questionnaire to identify tourists’ risk perceptions and their views on destination image. With this, I came to the conclusion that whether or not the image of Turkey is affected by terrorism really depends on tourists’ risk perceptions and the level of willingness to take the risk. The destination image is complex and depends on each individual’s views on risk in terms of safety and security.

However, I found that terrorism has not really affected the image of Turkey. This is because there are more positive images associated with Turkey like weather, sun and sea, food and culture, rather than the negative factors like violence and terrorism.

The reason why I argue that terrorism has not actually affected Turkey’s tourism market is that although terrorist attacks do in fact cause tourists to avoid visiting the country in the short term, people tend to forget and move on, so, tourism always maintains its growth and is not affected in the long-term.

Although tourism is a very vulnerable industry when exposed to terrorism, it is also such a strong and powerful industry that can, after some time, recover from terrorist attacks. The media tends to dramatise negative events; however, after a while, the media turns its attention away from older events to report up-to-date news (taking into account that there are events taking place every single day in the world) and the negativity around the original issue lessens.

Overall, due to the fact that tourism is such a strong and large sector, it will always recover from terrorism; terrorism will never overpower the tourism industry of Turkey due to the potential that its tourism market has. There are several unique and positive attributes of Turkey that attract tourists, and the positive factors overshadow offputting incidents like terrorism.

This is why I strongly believe and hope that tourism will continue to grow in Turkey and will never be permanently affected by terrorism.

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Turkey Tops European Tourism Growth…Again

Turkey’s remarkable tourism turnaround continued into 2018 as it once again came out on top in Europe for international arrivals growth.

Preliminary results for last year show Turkey up 22.3 percent on the prior year, according to the European Travel Commission, which collated the data.

“Assuming year-to-date growth holds true for 2018 as a whole, arrivals to Turkey in 2018 will exceed 47 million – this would mark a new record for the destination in tourist arrivals terms, having never before exceeded 40 million,” the ETC said in its report.

What’s interesting is that even though Turkey is well on the path to recovery following the attempted coup in 2016 and several terrorist attacks, arrivals from key markets such as the United Kingdom and Germany are still lower than their peak levels. Last year’s growth also was also slightly down on 2017.

Tour operators like TUI Group and Thomas Cook have returned to Turkey in the last couple of years following a resurgence in customer demand. It is a much cheaper destination for both consumers and businesses, compared with those in the western Mediterranean.

Nick Wrightman, managing director of tour operator The Discerning Collection, which specializes in Turkey, said the country had enjoyed a buoyant couple of years.

“Turkey certainly has had a great 2018, it was getting much better in 2017,” he said.

Wrightman said the growth in 2018 can be attributed to the weak Turkish lira, cheaper hotels and the perception of an improvement in safety.

“I’ve noticed certainly that families are back again, and thats a great sign for Turkey. When families go, you know the destination is perceived as safe…”

Countries like Spain and Portugal were beneficiaries of instability in Turkey but the trend appears to be reversing now. Spain’s international tourism growth dropped to 0.7 percent and Portugal’s to 0.2 percent, both these figures only cover the first 11 months of the year.

After Turkey, the next highest growth levels came from Serbia (+14.7 percent,) Malta (+14.5 percent,) Montenegro (+14 percent,) and Latvia (+10.1 percent.)

The UK was the worst performing destination —down 5.3 percent — thanks in part to its impressive performance in 2017. This result only covers the first nine months of the year.

“More developed destinations can find it difficult to sustain higher rates of growth compared to developing ones,” the ETC said.

Iceland’s booming tourism industry looks like it is cooling, with growth falling back to 5.5 percent in 2018.

Europe travel is “disproportionately growing” for small group operator Intrepid Group, CEO James Thornton said Friday.

“Europe just in general is booming,” he said. “There have been less terror-related issues in the last 12 months. I think confidence has renewed in that sense.”

In addition to Turkey, which is also growing rapidly for Intrepid, Thornton said less-visited destinations are becoming magnets for travelers who want to “do something other people aren’t doing.”

“They can be the first and be there and get on social media and tell their friends about something, try to make something trendy,” he said.

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Turkish tourism sector eyes int'l congresses

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas and Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

Turkey is holding high hopes for the future in the field of congress tourism, representatives of the sector said on Sunday.

Timur Bayindir, head of the Hotel Association of Turkey (TUROB) told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview that the country and its most popular touristic destination Istanbul will reenter the routes to international events this year.

"Congress tourism requires long-term planning, as the proposals for the organizations to be held in 2021 and 2022 have already been received," Timur Bayindir said.

"Turkey will return to its former world ranking position if we don't experience any negativity in the next 2-3 years," he said.

Pointing the development of congress tourism in Turkey in the last decade, Bayindir said: "In 2013, which was a record-year, Turkey hosted 221 international meetings to become the 18th country in the world."

He noted that the leading countries in this field are the U.S., Germany, and the U.K., while the prominent cities are Barcelona, Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and London.

Turkey has no security issue

"Turkey suffered from the cancellation of many approved organizations over the past three years following a fabricated negative security perception.

"As of 2016, the country lost its place in the top 10 and Istanbul couldn't hold its rank among the first 20 cities in the world," Bayindir said.

TUROB's head stressed that there is no security issue in Turkey, where the quality of service/accommodation is first-class.

"Increasing tourism revenue is more important than tourist numbers," he said. "We have not yet reached the desired price levels compared to European cities."

To promote congress tourism, Bayindir suggested that value-added tax exemptions on international events would be beneficial for attracting visitors with high-income level.

Last year, Turkey welcomed 39.5 million foreign visitors, as the country's tourism revenues reached $29.5 billion.

"Bleisure" gives Turkey advantages

Selcuk Boynuegri, vice chairman of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB), told Anadolu Agency that Turkey will see a recovery in congress tourism sector which was negatively affected by political incidents.

"Leading international congresses will be held in Turkey this year and in the upcoming years," Boynuegri said.

He pointed out that congress tourism yields more revenue compared to individual and package tours.

"The world average congress delegate expenditure is around $2,200 per events.

"If Turkey's congress tourism income rises to the world average, it can give acceleration in the general tourism revenues," he said.

Boynuegri noted that more than half of international congresses and meetings are held in Europe.

Asserting the shining trend of "bleisure" -- the combination of business and leisure trips -- Boynuegri said this concept gives Turkey advantages to be preferred.

"Turkey's historical, cultural and natural beauties along with the technological infrastructure of hotels, congresses and event centers may make the country a key destination in this field," he added.

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Turkey's tourism income totals $29.5B in 2018

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA 

Turkey's tourism income totaled $29.5 billion in 2018, the country's statistical authority announced on Thursday. 

The annual tourism revenue surged 12.3 percent last year, up from $26.3 billion in the previous year, TurkStat reported.

"While 81.8 percent of this income [excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures] was obtained from foreign visitors, 18.2 percent was obtained from citizens resident abroad," TurkStat said.

"In this year, while individual expenditures constituted $22.5 billion of the total tourism income, $6.9 billion of tourism income was obtained by package tour expenditures," it said.

Turkey welcomed 45.6 million visitors in 2018, marking a 18.1 percent hike from the previous year -- 85.4 percent foreign and 14.6 percent representing Turkish citizens residing abroad.

According to the official data, average expenditure per capita was $647 in 2018, as foreigners spent $617 per capita and Turkish citizens spent $801 per capita.

TurkStat said visitors spent most for food and beverage in 2018 -- foreigners with around $4.38 billion and Turkish visitors with $1.55 billion.

Foreigners spent some $2.7 billion on clothes and shoes, and $966 million on souvenirs in addition to nearly $77 million on carpets and rugs. 

The primary visiting purpose of foreigners was "travel, entertainment, sports and cultural activities" with 60.5 percent, as their top accommodation choice was hotel/motel/pension with over 36 million overnights.

The primary travel reason of Turkish visitors residing abroad was “visiting relatives and friends” with 50.4 percent, while they mostly preferred private houses during their trips in Turkey with more than 17 million overnights.

Official figures also showed that the country's tourism expenditure -- which is the expenditure of the Turkish citizens resident in Turkey and visited abroad -- fell to some $4.9 billion last year, declining by 4.7 percent on a yearly basis.  

"In 2018, number of Turkish citizens visited abroad decreased by 5.7 percent compared to previous year and reached 8.38 million.

"Average expenditure was $584 per capita," the institute said.

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U.S. ally Turkey looks to Russia and Iran to protect its interests

WASHINGTON — As Trump administration officials presided over the second day of an international conference in Warsaw dominated by calls to ratchet up pressure on Iran, one longtime U.S. ally and NATO member was noticeably absent — Turkey.

Snubbing the gathering in Poland, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday attended a rival conference in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where he planned to meet his Russian and Iranian counterparts to work out a final settlement of the war in Syria.

The dueling summits illustrate President Donald Trump's struggle to forge a united front against Iran, and reflect Turkey's drift away from Washington as it finds common ground with Moscow and Tehran, experts and former officials said.

Erdogan: 'John Bolton has made a very serious mistake'

JAN. 9, 201900:47

For decades, the U.S. could count on Turkey as a reliable partner that would line up with other allies against Iran and support Washington's strategic goals. But the political landscape has changed, U.S. influence in the region is in doubt, and Ankara is staking out an independent course, said Colin Clarke, senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank.

"I think we're seeing a realignment," Clarke told NBC News. "The U.S. has gone from the position where we called the shots, to where we are making mere suggestions to Turkey. That's a major sea change."

Turkey's relations with Washington have come under mounting strain since Erdogan was elected president in 2014, as the Turkish leader has pushed back on U.S. policies and carried out a crackdown on dissent. But the conflict in Syria has opened up the most dramatic divide between the two countries, with Ankara infuriated at Washington's support for Kurdish forces in Syria, which it sees as a terrorist threat.

When national security adviser John Bolton flew to Ankara in January, Erdogan refused to meet him and expressed outrage at U.S. demands that Turkey refrain from launching strikes against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria.

Civilians wait at a makeshift checkpoint after fleeing ISIS from the Syrian city of Bagouz on Feb. 9, 2019.Chris McGrath / Getty Images

"We cannot swallow . . . the message that Bolton gave in Israel," the Turkish president said, and added that Bolton "probably doesn't know" the difference between ethnic Kurds and armed Kurdish groups.

With the U.S. planning to withdraw its small contingent of 2,000 troops in Syria within months, Turkey has recognized for some time it must reach an accommodation with Russia and Iran to safeguard its interests in Syria, experts said.

"The real power brokers in Syria are Iran and Russia," said Ilan Goldenberg, a former senior official under the Obama administration and now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank.

The three countries meeting in Sochi have emerged as the dominant players in what appears to be the final phase of the Syrian civil war. Russia and Iran came to the aid of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and have succeeded in turning the tide of the conflict in Assad's favor.

A Syrian Democratic Forces fighter stands guard on a rooftop after retaking the city of Raqqa from ISIS fighters on Oct. 20, 2017.Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images file

Turkey cultivated Islamist rebel groups opposed to Assad that have been beaten back for the most part. But Russia and Iran need Turkey's help in squelching the rebels in their last strongholds in the northern province of Idlib, and Ankara needs Russian and Iranian cooperation to ensure Kurdish forces are kept in check and to pave the way for Syrian refugees to return, former U.S. diplomats said.

"I am confident that our trilateral summit on Syria will provide a new impulse toward stabilization in this country," Putin said before the talks began in Sochi.

In discussions with Ankara, U.S. officials have revived the idea of a protected "buffer zone" for the Kurds in the northeast, but Erdogan has said any such area would have to be coordinated with Russia.

When an uprising erupted in Syria in 2011, Erdogan had hoped to see Assad fall. But Turkey has since come to accept that Assad is firmly in place, and that the Syrian regime's patrons — Russia and Iran — will be needed to prevent a Kurdish state forming on Turkey's southern border, said Aykan Erdemir, a member of the Turkish parliament from 2011-2015.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media at the parliament in Ankara on Jan. 8, 2019.Burhan Ozbilici / AP

"Turkey realizes it has lost in Syria. And the Kurdish issue has always been the top priority for Turkey," said Erdemir, now a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish think tank. And that "means you have to work with Russia," he said.

As U.N. peace talks on Syria foundered in recent years despite backing from the United States, Turkey joined up with Russia and Iran for an alternative peace process that soon overshadowed the U.N. effort, a result that made the United States look impotent, foreign diplomats and experts said.

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China issues Turkey safety alert after Ankara’s ‘vile’ statements about treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang

The Chinese embassy in Ankara advised residents and tourists travelling to Turkey to “be wary and pay attention to their personal safety”.

Turkey on Sunday described China’s treatment of its Muslim ethnic Uygur people as “a great embarrassment for humanity”, prompting a strong rebuke.

Beijing said that the Turkish criticisms were “vile”, and that Turkey should have a proper understanding of the legal efforts made by China to fight terrorism and extremism within its borders effectively.

China has already issued warnings to Canada and Sweden – where relations with Beijing have nosedived – in a move analysts described as an expression of displeasure.

China and Canada have been at loggerheads since the arrest on December 1 of Huawei executive Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, whom the US wants to extradite on fraud charges. Meng has since been released on bail in Vancouver.

Uygur man, detained in Turkey for suspected terror links, wary of China’s reach

In January, against the background of Meng’s situation, China issued a warning of the risk of travelling to Canada, hours after Ottawa issued a similar alert.

A notice by the Chinese foreign ministry said citizens should be aware of the risk of being “arbitrarily detained at the request of a third nation” in Canada, and urged caution when making travel plans.

In December, China issued a travel alert warning its citizens about the risks of visiting Sweden.

The two sides have long been at odds over human rights, but in early September a group of Chinese tourists claimed they had been mistreated by the Swedish police, an incident that generated a fierce backlash.

China and Sweden are also at odds over Beijing’s detention of Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish citizen and publisher of books critical of China’s leadership.

Transcript of Gui Minhai’s government-arranged interview: ‘Swedish government used me’

“The statement made by the Chinese embassy is a countermeasure on the Turkish government,” said analyst Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“It is a message telling the Turkish government that you should not say too much about the internal affairs in China, otherwise economic relationships, tourism, this sort of thing, could be affected.”

Analysts said that while there was a potential risk for Chinese citizens in Turkey, the situation was not grave.

“People making transfer flights in Istanbul will not have to worry,” said Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Beijing’s Renmin University. “But there may be increased risk for Chinese tourists travelling deep into the country from Muslim groups such as the Turkestan Islamic Party after Turkey’s strong stance.”

“I think it will have an impact on a very small number of tourists,” Li said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: China issues safety alert for visitors to Turkey as row over Uygurs escalates

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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Boosting tourism: Turkey eyes Chennai, other metro cities

Chennai: Turkish Tourism, which has been participating in few important trade exhibitions since the last couple of years, has planned to rev up its tourism campaign in India targeting mainly the wedding and MICE segments. Turkey will come to woo Chennai and other important metros starting this month.
Turkey is home to the iconic Hagia Sophia, with its soaring dome and Christian mosaics, the massive 17th century Blue Mosque and the circa-1460 Topkap? Palace, former home of sultans are other attractions. Turkish Tourism hopes to have its share of the tourism pie as Indians from Chennai and other cities have been evincing interest in exploring new overseas destinations abroad, while also showing a tendency to loosen their purse strings while holidaying abroad.
Around 15 big Indian weddings have been confirmed in 2018. “Our focus is to showcase Turkey beyond Istanbul. The messaging would be to look beyond Istanbul,” Mr. H. Deniz Ersoz, Culture & Tourism Counsellor, Embassy of Republic of Turkey in India, said.
About 90 percent of the hotels on the Mediterranean coast work on all-inclusive packages. This is yet not known in the Indian market. Therefore, efforts would be to make this messaging spread across all trade hubs in India.
This month will see Turkish Tourism commence joint promotional campaigns with leading tour companies in the country, to tap the weddings market, corporates and MICE. The campaign will cover Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and few tier-II cities.
Foreign tourist arrivals in the first six months of 2018 increased by 30 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching around 16 million, as per official statistics. Tourism revenue in the first six months of this year rose from US$ 8.7 billion to US$ 11.4 billion.
India inbound to Turkey grew 100 percent between January and June this year, compared to the corresponding period last year. Turkey has targeted two lakh Indian visitors this year. The maximum number of Indian visitors to Turkey was in 2015 and it stood at 1.32 lakhs. Mr. Ersoz had meetings with Union Tourism Ministry officials in India, on reviving the mechanism to explore scope of mutual cooperation in tourism. Turkey is also exploring a JWG meeting in Istanbul in October- November this year.


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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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