Turkey reorganizes subsidies for inbound flights, cruisers

ANKARA

The Turkish government has reorganized the subsidies allocated to group-A tourism operators bringing in tourists on flights and cruise ships, according to two separate cabinet decrees published in the Official Gazette on March 13.

The operators carrying tourists on flights to 16 Turkish airports will receive $9,000 for the period between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, $6,000 between March 1 and May 31, $3,000 between June 1 and June 30, $1,500 between Sep. 1 and Sep. 30, $3,000 between Oct. 1 and Oct. 31, and $3,000 between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31.

Only charter flights bound to Istanbul Atatürk Airport will be subsidized, whereas all scheduled and charter flights to Antalya, Antalya Gazipaşa-Alanya, Denizli Çardak, Erzurum, Eskişehir Hasan Polatkan, Isparta Süleyman Demirel, İzmir Adnan Menderes, Konya, Kütahya Zafer, Muğla Damalan, Muğla Milas-Bodrum, Nevşehir Kapadokya, Ordu Giresun, Samsun Çarşamba and Trabzon airports will be financially supported by the Turkish government.

If there are more than 150 tourists in a plane, the amount of the subsidy will be increased by 30 percent.

Subsidies will also be increased by 20 percent for inbound flights from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Indonesia, Finland, France, South Korea, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, Malaysia and Norway.

Cruise ships also subsidized

According to the second decree published in the Official Gazette on March 13, an amount of $45 per foreign tourist will be provided to the tourism operators for cruise ships with the capacity of at least 100 people in the months of January, February, March, April, November and December. The amount of subsidy per cruise tourist will be decreased to $35 in May and June, and to $25 in July, August, September and October.

In 2019, the subsidies will be increased 50 percent for inbound cruises to smaller ports.