Turkey’s tourism could be on the increase again after the value of the Turkish lira has decreased against the value of the pound. The value of the lira dropped by 35% in the last 12 months, with the current exchange rate being £1 to 8.22TRY – very appealing rates for anyone looking for an inexpensive sun holiday or a cheap last minute singles holiday.
Research conducted by Forward Keys and GfK also saw seats on direct UK flights to Turkey at 94% of what they were back in 2015. Thomas Cook also reported a 63% increase year-on-year for Brits booking holidays to Turkey, with Antalya airport overtaking Palma airport in Mallorca with the number of UK arrivals this year.
This isn’t the only boost in tourism Turkey has seen recently, as it’s been reported that Turkey received a boom in local tourism over the Eid holiday, according to Hurriyet Daily News. “More than nine million local tourists have spent 9 billion Turkish Liras on Turkish resorts in the last nine-day Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) holiday.
“During the nine-day public holiday, airlines carried nearly 3.5 million people mainly to local destinations.”
Mehmet İşler, the vice president of the Hoteliers Federation of Turkey, also noted a 70% decline in the number of Turks visiting Greece compared to previous Eid – the most popular holiday destination for Turkish holidaymakers over the past two years.
Turkey’s tourism dropped after hostilities in July 2016. In 2015, Turkey was the sixth most visited country in the world, welcoming 42 million visitors, but after the attacks, this figure dropped by almost half to 25 million. But experts believe that 2018 will be a record year for Turkey, welcoming a range of foreign visitors, including an estimated 6 million Russian tourists, with Russian visitors increasing by 46% compared to last year.
This influx of tourists to Turkey has also brought a major increase in scheduled flights, according to the Daily Sabah. It appears previous conflicts between Russia and Turkey have almost been forgotten, with “the reconciliation between the two countries having increased in many areas. With tourism reaping the fruits of this rapprochement as well.”
