British tourists arrive at Bodrum airport after two-year hiatus

MUĞLA

Milas-Bodrum Airport in the western province of Muğla has welcomed a group of British tourists for the first time in two years.

Flights from the U.K to the airport, located in the Milas district of the province and serving the popular holiday hotspot Bodrum, were previously suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A plane with 180 British holidaymakers on board from Bristol landed at the airport on March 27.

“This flight also marked the first international flight of the season at our airport,” said İclal Kayaoğlu, the general manager of TAV Milas-Bodrum.

She also said that there were expectations for passenger traffic to increase this year compared to 2021.

According to a recent survey by the U.K. Post Office, the Turkish resort town of Marmaris, located on the country’s Aegean coast, is among the top best value destinations for British holidaymakers.

The depreciation of the Turkish Lira helped Marmaris edge past Sunny Beach in Bulgaria to take the top spot for the first time, the Post Office’s annual Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer said.

Prices are down in Marmaris, almost 37 percent year-on-year, which means that Turkey has become marginally cheaper for British visitors.

Turkish hoteliers are concerned that the ongoing war in Ukraine may adversely affect tourist inflows from Russia and Ukraine this year.

Due to coronavirus-related restrictions, some 393,000 British nationals visited Turkey last year, down from the previous year’s 820,000 people. A year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, Turkey welcomed nearly 2.6 million British holidaymakers.

In the first two months of 2022, nearly 94,000 British tourists visited Turkey, marking a staggering 1,100 percent increase from a year ago and higher than 85,000 Britons arrived in the country in the same period of 2020.