Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Ersoy stated that 500 thousand Saudi Arabian visitors will visit Turkiye in 2022 and 800 thousand in 2023, and said that they hope to see 1 million Saudi Arabian tourists this year.
In the panel held at the Turkiye-Saudi Arabia Investment and Business Forum, hosted by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and organized by the Investment Office of the President of the Republic of Turkiye and the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK), Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Simsek, Minister of Investment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Khalid A. Al Falih, Minister of Tourism of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ahmed Al Khateeb made their speeches.
Participating in the event, Ersoy pointed out that sustainable tourism is a responsibility and said, “Increasing environmental awareness and protecting global resources becomes more important every year. Sustainability is both a responsibility and an obligation for governments and the private sector. For this reason, we prepared a Sustainability Atlas for Turkiye with more than 50 tourism experts in 2020.”
Underlining that they have taken steps related to sustainable tourism, Ersoy said that they have launched a certification program valid in 81 provinces of Turkiye in 2021.
Minister Ersoy gave the following information about the Sustainable Tourism Certification Program:
“There are three phases of this program. The first phase started in 2023, the second phase will start in 2025, and the third phase will be completed in 2030. We currently have more than 21 thousand hotels. Approximately 16 thousand hotels are included in this program. 5-6 thousand of them will join in the new season. This was the first protocol signed in the world. This concerns all facilities in the country. Of course, it can be a great example for other countries because it works perfectly. In the future, travelers will look for such certifications when they want to make a reservation. If there is a certificate, it will give priority to this business. I believe that after a few years, governments will ask for extra taxes if their citizens do not go to certified hotels. Some banks also desire this certificate. This is an important issue for the future. Everyone should have such a certificate in 5 or 10 years to be able to make reservations more perfectly.”
Emphasizing that they have launched a new program for restoration and archaeological studies, Ersoy said, “We changed the duration of stay of archaeologists in the field. Archaeologists generally worked for 2 months and returned to their universities after ten. We have 144 archaeological excavation sites and ruins in Turkiye. They promised to work with this protocol all year. The second phase of this protocol has started and we added 33 foreign excavation sites to the program. In other words, we work in 276 excavation sites all year round. We also increased their budget by 20 times. We have a goal. We want to do in the next 4 years what we have done in the last 60 years in archeology. This is important for the sustainability of cultural resources. I think this will affect reservations in Turkiye in the future.”
Mehmet Ersoy stated that 500 thousand Saudi Arabian visitors will come to Turkiye in 2022 and 800 thousand in 2023, and they hope that 1 million Saudi Arabian tourists will come this year. “Thanks to the electronic visa applied for Turkish citizens, Turkish citizens’ visits to Saudi Arabia have increased. We have abolished the visa requirement for our Saudi Arabian guests. I think this will increase the number of visitors.”
Following the speeches at the panel, cooperation protocols in the field of tourism were signed.
Source: Sabah / Prepared by Irem Yildiz