Türkiye enjoys tourism boom, says minister

The tourism season is going well for Türkiye and the targets revised up mid-year are to be exceeded, Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has said, particularly highlighting the situation in Istanbul.

"After a long hiatus, Istanbul has started to be listed in first place among the must-see destinations by the world's leading tourism mediums," Ersoy said during a visit to daily Hürriyet's Ankara office.

"It receives visitors from all over the world, we can say that the city has become like the United Nations. The hotels are at full capacity and there are tourists of all nationalities."

The situation in Istanbul is a reflection of the growing interest in Türkiye as a holiday destination, the minister said.

"We established the Turkish Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA) in 2019 in order to better promote the tourism potential we have," Ersoy said.

"We are currently engaged in promotional and public relations activities, mainly on television and digital media, in 200 countries. For the last three years, we have been the country that has made the most intense and effective promotion in the world, and we get the results of these efforts."

Ersoy noted that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has not stopped the tourist flow to Türkiye.

"Despite the conflict in the Black Sea region, we revised our target, which was 42 million tourists and $35 billion in revenues at the beginning of the season, to 47 million tourists and $37 billion," he said. "The season is going very well, I hope we will exceed these revised targets by the end of the year."

Türkiye must diversify its tourism markets and products and focus on "quality tourists" to stay strong in future crises, Ersoy added.

One of such efforts is to promote...