Santa Claus visitors exceed half million

The Santa Claus Museum in the southern province of Antalya’s Demre district was visited by more than half a million people in the first 10 months of the year, according to new figures released by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

The museum and its surroundings is the most visited and profitable site in Antalya.

Some 508,488 visitors have come through the museum’s doors this year, producing 5,324,780 Turkish Liras in revenues, up from 500,175 people in the same period last year.

However, visitors to the ancient city of Myra in Demre were on the decline this year compared to last year. In the first 10 months of the year, 411,144 people visited the ancient site and provided 560,244 liras revenue. The number of visitors was 434,696 in the same period last year, adding 4,619,691 liras to the state’s coffers in revenue.

Interest in museums on decline

According to information from the Culture and Tourism Ministry, over the last three years, there was no remarkable increase in the number of tourists visiting museums and ancient sites affiliated with the ministry. The increase in museum and ancient site visitors was nearly 12 million between 2003 and 2010, but only 1 million after 2010.

Since 2010, the ministry has transferred ticket sales for nearly 150 museums to the Turkish Travel Agencies Union (TÜRSAB), which resulted in an increase in ticket prices. Prices rose at the Ankara Ethnography Museum from 5 to 10 liras and at the Konya Mevlana Museum from 3 to 5 liras.