V-shaped recovery in Turkish tourism sector this year expected to continue in 2022, says culture and tourism minister
Turkey aims to achieve strong growth in tourism next year, overtaking pre-pandemic revenues.
“I predict that tourism will bounce back through this May and the V-shaped recovery we saw this year will continue in 2022,” Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said in an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency.
Touting the country’s goal for a V-shaped recovery in tourism this year even as it has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Ersoy said: “We managed to achieve our ambitious and challenging target this year with doubling our tourism revenue to $24 billion.”
In 2020, with most of the world staying at home due to COVID-19, Turkey generated $12.6 billion tourism revenues a 65.1% year-on-year decline, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
The latest figures from the Tourism Ministry showed that the country welcomed 22.8 million foreign visitors in January-November, up 89.6% from the same period last year.