Turkey keen to build on tourism revival to spur growth

ANKARA－Tourism in Turkey rebounded in 2021, injecting hard cash into the country's vulnerable economy and offering hope for industry professionals counting on flourishing bookings for 2022.

"I predict that tourism will bounce back … and the V-shaped recovery we saw this year (2021) will continue next year," Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told state-run Anadolu Agency in December, noting that the country wants to overtake pre-pandemic revenues in 2022. "We managed to achieve our ambitious and challenging target this year with doubling our tourism revenue to $24 billion."

The year of 2019 was its best when Turkey received 51.7 million foreign tourists with revenues amounting to nearly $34.5 billion.

However, with most of the world impacted by COVID-19 in 2020, Turkey generated $12.6 billion in tourism revenue that year－a 65.1 percent year-on-year decline, according to official data.

The latest figures from the Tourism Ministry showed that Turkey welcomed 22.8 million foreign visitors from January to November last year, up 89.6 percent from the same period the previous year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is targeting $35 billion in tourism revenue in 2022, stressing that hard cash from the industry has helped Turkey weather economic woes last year.

Turkey's finances have been strained by a sharp currency decline in 2021. Hence, tourism revenues, accounting for more than 10 percent of its GDP, are vital for the reserves.

The industry is expecting around 10 million early reservations for this year, said Firuz Baglikaya, chairman of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies.

Representatives of the Turkish cruise sector are also expecting a boom, forecasting more than 1 million tourists, after major companies added back Turkish ports to their routes following the opening of Galataport, a cruise ship port in the center of Istanbul, the country's largest city.

Xinhua