Tourist flow from Russia to Turkey rose tenfold in first half of 2017: Russian minister

MOSCOW

The number of tourists from Russia to Turkey rose tenfold in the first half of 2017 on an annualized basis, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Oct. 21 in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV Channel, as reported by TASS.

“The flow of tourists to Turkey increased significantly this year in view of lifting restrictions that were introduced earlier for charter transportation. We expect that about 1.6 million people already visited Turkey, according to data, in the six months, while there were just 168,000 people in the same period last year. That is, the tourist traffic rose tenfold,” Novak said.

Tourism is important for the development of bilateral relations, and Russia is also interested in the growth of the tourist flow from Turkey, the minister added.

Normalization in bilateral ties between Turkey and Russia and a visible easing in security concerns have helped the Turkish tourism sector rebound.

The country saw an 820 percent year-on-year increase in the number of arrivals from Russia when 1.69 million Russians visited Turkey in the first half, according to data from the Tourism Ministry.

In the first eight months of the year, a total of 3.3 million Russians visited Turkey, with an 891.6 percent year-on-year increase. The number of Russians who visited Turkey in the same period of 2016 was 336,165.