Mehmet Nuri Ersoy

Tourists wishing to visit Hagia Sophia in Istanbul will have to pay admission starting in January 2024, the country's culture minister announced on Tuesday.

The 1,500-year-old Byzantine cathedral, which was converted from a museum into a mosque by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2020, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and receives over 3.5 million visitors a year.

The 10th destination of the Türkiye Cultural Road Festivals, one of the most comprehensive culture and arts projects organized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, is the Ephesus Cultural Road Festival.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, the "Türkiye's Treasures" digital collection is available online on the Google Arts & Culture Platform.

New finds have been unearthed during archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Olympus in Antalya's Kumluca district.

The excavation and restoration work that started in the new season have made the ancient city an important center of the Lycian region in terms of mosaic flooring.

Previously unpublished images of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Türkiye, along with various historical recordings, have been added to a web archive called Film Mirasım (My Film Heritage, in English) launched by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has announced that regulations will be introduced for the increasingly popular short-term rental sector, ensuring both taxation of service providers and the disclosure of identity information of those who benefit from the accommodation.

The tourism sector in Türkiye witnessed a notable resurgence in demand as the number of tourists visiting the country during the first six months of 2023 increased by an impressive 17 percent, surpassing the 22 million mark, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has announced.

Large-scale wildfires have been ravaging parts of Türkiye amid intensifying heatwaves, with the latest one engulfing tourist hotspot Antalya's Kemer district, as firefighting crews pace up efforts to contain them.

As Türkiye, like the rest of the world, is recently experiencing record-breaking temperatures and heatwaves, teams are facing prolonged battles with numerous forest fires.

A centuries-old tomb stele smuggled from the ancient Turkish city of Zeugma to Italy has been returned to its home, Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced on July 13.

A stele is a standing stone slab used in the ancient world for several purposes, including grave and tomb markers, dedications, commemorations and demarcations.

Around 100,000 foreign tourists are arriving by air in Antalya each day, according to Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, while the number of international holidaymakers visiting the Mediterranean resort reached 5 million.

"We have made a good start to the tourism season. Hopefully more tourists will visit the city in the coming months" he said.