Halicarnassus

The picturesque coastal town of Bodrum in the Aegean region is gearing up to welcome a significant influx of tourists in 2024, with the Bodrum Hoteliers Association (BODER) aiming to attract over 100,000 visitors via cruise ships and more than 1 million through air travel.

A man who lives in the southern province of Muğla's Bodrum district offers piano concerts to local and foreign tourists with his piano mounted on a specially designed three-wheeled bicycle.

Zafer Mat, a married father of two children, started playing mandolin at an early age and his interest in music expanded with the piano gifted by his friends 17 years ago.

How exactly does one define the spirit of Bodrum? Once, it was the sleepy little fishing village, with its main income being sponge diving. It was a typical idyllic Aegean town adorned with a magnificent castle, a remembrance of a distant glorious past.

A record 15.7 million tourists arrived in Antalya by air last year, with Russians constituting the largest group of foreign holidaymakers.

The previous record in tourist arrivals was in 2019 at 15.3 million, while in 2022, 13.5 million foreigners visited Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast.

The 20th Bodrum Ballet Festival will open on Aug 5 with the 'Harem' ballet to be staged by the Ankara State Opera and Ballet. The event will continue through Aug 17 in the historical places of Bodrum. Tickets for the festival are on sale at Biletinial.

Occupancy rates at resort towns on the Aegean coast have climbed to nearly 100 percent thanks to the long Eid al-Adha holiday, according to hoteliers in the region.

For instance, some 100,000 cars entered the popular destination of Bodrum in the province of Muğla within a space of four and a half days.

The presidential election slated for a second round at the end of May is causing uncertainties in the tourism industry.

Sales are slow at the travel agencies, tour operators cannot make arrangements with airline companies due to uncertainties, people from the industry said.

Following the deadly quakes that jolted Türkiye's south in early February, an expected Istanbul tremor that experts for long have been warning about has come to the agenda once again, with the number of city's residents who prefer to settle down in Bodrum is on the rise.

As Russian oligarchs never took their boats from the western province of Muğla's Bodrum district this year, tourism sector representatives predict that the country will have a successful tourism season this summer.

Masood Zakaria, one of the top figures in the Alameddine crime network, which has been waging a blood-soaked war on Sydney's streets since 2020 and described as the "most wanted man in Australia," has been caught in the Aegean province of Muğla's Bodrum district.