Firuz Baglikaya, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB), stated that there were significant increases in Turkiye reservations and said, “We are working with all our strength to reach the target of $60 million of revenue and 60 million tourists.”
Representatives of the tourism sector made a statement to the AA correspondent on the occasion of “Tourism Week”.
Baglikaya emphasized that tourism has an important role in creating bridges of peace between countries and people and said, “In today’s world, nearly 1.5 billion international trips take place annually. In tourism, which is a highly strategic sector with its structure that creates employment and added value, competition around the world is increasing day by day.”
Stating that they expect Turkiye’s rise in tourism to continue in 2024, Baglikaya stated that there have been significant increases in reservations for Turkiye as a source market, and that the distribution of the number of visitors is mainly concentrated in 3-4 cities.
Firuz Baglikaya continued as follows:
“We need to change this and attract visitors from the income group with high spending levels to our country. Again, in order to increase our income, it is important to further increase the share of tourism types with high added value such as culture, health, congress and gastronomy. With the ‘Tourism Century’ project we implemented based on this idea, we aimed to ensure that tourism, one of the locomotive sectors of the country’s economy, spreads to all four corners of our country and throughout the year. We will continue to take the necessary steps to spread tourism to 12 months and throughout the country, both to attract more tourists from abroad to our country and to increase our tourism income.”
“Tourism is one of the leading sectors that determine the future of our country.”
TURSAB President Baglikaya stated that the importance and duty of the tourism sector will increase even more in 2024, when international tourism competition is expected to be intense, and said, “We, as TURSAB, are working with all our strength together with our member travel agencies to reach the target of $60 billion of income and 60 million tourists, announced by our President. We will continue our work at full speed, aware of our duties and responsibilities.”
Baglikaya noted that the importance of tourism in Turkiye will increase even more, considering Turkiye’s goal of reaching 100 million visitors in the future, and said:
“We predict that tourism employment, which stands at 1.5 million across Turkiye, will at least double with these targets. Therefore, tourism will continue to be one of the sectors that determine the future in our country. With our belief that we will achieve new successes together, we sincerely congratulate all stakeholders of tourism on Tourism Week and wish them a successful season.”
“The total cost of tourism investments is approximately $90 billion”
Muberra Eresin, President of the Turkish Hoteliers Association (TUROB), said that they celebrated “Tourism Week” with hopeful feelings. Eresin said, “I would like to underline that we are very happy to have laid the pioneering foundations together that increased the competitive power of Turkish tourism and made this power sustainable.
Turkish tourism reached 50 million from 2 million total tourists and 1.5 million bed capacity from 85 thousand bed capacity. “Today, the total cost of tourism investments has increased to approximately $90 billion, and the number of people employed has increased to approximately 1.5 million.”
Pointing out that the 2024 visitor number and tourism income targets for Turkiye are in line with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Eresin concluded his words as follows:
“This year, our goal is to reach $60 billion of tourism revenue and 60 million tourists. We believe that the tourism sector will continue to achieve its goals and provide strong support to the closing of the current account deficit and the country’s economy, employment and development. European interest in Istanbul is slowly starting again. The high rates of increases in the Japanese and Chinese markets also show that the Far East markets, which stopped during the pandemic, have begun to return. The 12% increase in the number of visitors to Turkiye in the first 2 months of this year also supports our expectations. The signs from international tourism fairs are positive. The fairs held in the first period of the year were very successful. We hope that there will be an increase in hotel occupancy in 2024.”
“We are a country with advantages”
International Sustainable Tourism Association (USTUD) President Adviye Bergemann stated that Turkiye is a country with very different dynamics and said, “The sector made more cautious targets and plans for 2024.”
Bergemann said, “Our wish is to have a better year and complete the year with high occupancy rates. Europe is doing much better in luxury tourism than in previous years. Demands are showing an increasing momentum. Despite the large number of competing destinations, we are a country with many advantages. By focusing on these, I wish all tourism professionals a great season and congratulate all my colleagues on the tourism week.”
Source: AA / Prepared by Irem Yildiz