Ministry reaping yields of card system in tourist areas

İSTANBUL

The revenues from museums and ancient sites, together with commercial operations, increased 39 percent last year to reach 435 million Turkish Liras, the Culture and Tourism Ministry has reported. The ministry has begun to reap the results of its innovative policies that were initiated in 2013 and continued in 2014, it said in a statement. HÜRRİYET Photo

The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry’s move to revamp some of its card systems for Turkey’s most famous sites begins to pay dividends.

The revenues from museums and ancient sites increased by 39 percent in 2014 and the sales of the Museum Card + increased by 100 percent. 

The revenues from museums and ancient sites, together with commercial operations, increased 39 percent last year to reach 435 million Turkish Liras, the Culture and Tourism Ministry has reported.
The ministry has begun to reap the results of its innovative policies that were initiated in 2013 and continued in 2014, it said in a statement.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik said the results of the assessment reports of the term between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2014, had showed positive results. 

Çelik said the revenues from museums and ancient sites increased by 39 percent in 2014 and that the sales of the Museum Card + increased by 100 percent. 

“Those revenues were 26 million liras in 2002 and reached 272 million liras within 10 years. It was 313 million liras in 2013 and thanks to reformist and rationalist practices, it showed a great rise last year at 435 million liras,” Çelik said in the statement. 

“The venues which drew the greatest interest from tourists in 2013 were the same last year, too. The Hagia Sophia Museum of Istanbul ranked first with 3.57 million people, and it was followed by the Topkapı Palace Museum with 3.55 million people, the Konya Mevlana Museum at 2.04 million people, Denizli Pamukkale Hierapolis Site at 1.88 million people and İzmir’s Ephesus at 1.87 million people. Also, Topkapı Palace’s Seraglio ranked seventh at 1.07 million people. I believe that the new sections of the seraglio, which were recently opened, will also double the number of visitors this year,” he said. 

Sales of Museum Card 

The ministry also hailed the 100 percent increase in the sale of the Museum Card + in comparison to last year. “Museum Card, Museum Card +, Museum Pass Istanbul and Museum Pass Cappadocia [for foreigners] were the projects that the ministry initiated to turn our museums into a social event alternative,” he said. “They were very successful in 2014. Besides the 100 percent increase in the sales of Museum Card +, the Museum Pass sales also increased by 39 percent.  The Museum Pass Cappadocia has [only] been on sale for a year but it has drawn great interest. We estimate that it will be sold more than the other museum cards.” The minister said the Museum Pass Istanbul and Museum Pass Cappadocia were the first Turkish examples of city cards that are used in all important tourism destinations in the world. “When we saw the success of the card in Istanbul, we started the same application for Cappadocia. 


Other cities will have the same card

We will continue doing the same application for other cities such as Antalya, Muğla and İzmir. Discount tours, transfer services, events at Turkish baths, cooking courses and the entrance to some private museums are among the advantages of this card. Our main goal is to turn all these cards into contemporary city cards this year,” he said.