Tourism in Turkey

Despite the impacts of recent forest fires on its Aegean and Mediterranean resort towns, Turkey still hopes to host 25 million foreign visitors this year, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said on Aug. 6.

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At the Ananas Hotel on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, the rooms were cleaned, the pool filled and the sun loungers distanced, as staff prepared to welcome back Russian tourists after nearly 20 months of pandemic-induced closure.

Located in the Black Sea province of Giresun, the Kümbet Plateau is covered with large spruce, pine forests and meadows. Nature enthusiasts who visit Kümbet also have the opportunity to visit Koçkayası Nature Park, located some 5 kilometers away from the plateau. (AA Photo)

As COVID-19 lockdowns around the world are easing, tourism professionals working on new alternatives are drawing the attention of tourists who want to holiday in isolation.
Aegean and Mediterranean tours by yacht, known as the Blue Cruise, are in demand by potential customers preparing for the upcoming tourism season in Turkey.

The ski resort Uludağ near Bursa near the Marmara coast is one of Turkey's most popular ski destinations. But come summer, it can hardly compete with the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, which attract millions of tourists.

Yet Uludağ (Grand Mountain in English) could become a year-round tourism destination, according to Austrian experts.

Turkey's popular holiday destination Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, welcomed more than 186,000 foreign tourists in January, according to the head of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TÜROFED).

"Foreign tourist arrivals in Antalya increased by 31 percent and marked the highest number of foreign tourist visits on record for the month of January," Sururi Çorabatır said.

Turkey hopes to attract 58 million foreign tourists and targets more than $40 billion tourism revenues this year, Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has said.

He noted that the exact figures for the full year will be released at the end of the month, but the country probably welcomed 51 million tourists and generated around $34 billion of tourism revenues in 2019.

Sümela Monastery, one of the most important tourism centers in Turkey, was visited by some 220,000 tourists in four months.

Antalya, one of Turkey's top tourist hotspots, has welcomed a record 14 million foreign tourists this year, data from the provincial directorate of culture and tourism showed.

Antalya, one of Turkey's most popular holiday destinations on the Mediterranean coast, welcomed a record number of 10 million foreign tourists between Jan. 1 and Aug. 22.