East Mediterranean International Tourism

Türkiye will seek to lure more tourists from the U.S., South America, Far East, Asia and Gulf nations while continuing to focus on existing strategic markets, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has said.

Initial indicators, such as early reservations, suggest that Turkey's target set for 2022 of generating $35 billion in tourism revenues is attainable, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has said.

The East Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel Exhibition (EMITT) has opened its doors in Istanbul on the same day the Hotel Association of Turkey (TÜROB) announced that hotel occupancy rate in Turkey was the lowest in Europe in 2016, with only 50.8 percent of the total number of rooms being full. EMITT has triumphed as the world's fifth largest fair in the past 21 years.

Traveling to Turkey is the best way to respond to terror threats, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General Taleb Rifai said in the opening ceremony of the 21st East Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel exhibition on Jan. 26.

Exhibition organizer ITE Group Plc said on Oct. 3 that the attempted coup in Turkey in July had "significantly affected" international travel to the country, hurting the company's bookings on Turkish events.