Türkiye sets eyes on $100 billion tourism income

ISTANBUL

Türkiye targets 90 million tourists and $100 billion tourism income in 2028, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has said.

“We will work income-oriented, not cost-oriented, in tourism,” Ersoy said at a press conference on Jan. 31.

“In 2023, there will be serious increases in Türkiye’s tourism revenues. I’m not worried about cost. Industry representatives also say that profitability rates have exceeded 2019.”

An important target to increase the number of tourists and the tourism income is to diversify markets, Ersoy said.

“Everywhere Turkish Airlines flies is our target market,” the minister added.

“We have created new focus markets within the scope of product diversification. We will see very serious increases in these markets. The first of these is the United States. We exceeded 1 million visitors from the U.S. last year and our goal for this year is to host 1.7 or 1.8 million visitors. In addition, we will focus on South American, Scandinavian, Gulf and Far Eastern countries. Another advantage of these countries is that they leave more money in per capita income as they come from distant destinations and their average stay is longer.”

Global promotion campaigns will continue at a fast pace, Ersoy noted.

“We have created destination brands such as ‘Istanbul is the new cool,’ ‘TurkAegean’ and ‘Turkish Riviera,’” he said.

“In the 2023-2028 period, we will introduce a total of 20 new branded products more intensively around the world by including nine more main promotional brands into the system.”

Specialization will continue, the minister added.

“We have more than 50 products on the GoTürkiye website,” Ersoy said.

“We need to make the world memorize these 50 products, put them in minds. We will brand the products that need to be highlighted in certain processes, not only on a destination basis, but also on a product basis.”

Ersoy noted that the tourism of the future has to be sustainable.

“We want to be the country that adapts to this change the fastest,” he said.

“We foresee that all of our accommodation facilities, which will reach 24,500 by 2030, will have completed the third stage sustainability criteria. Türkiye is the first country in the world to enforce sustainability with a law.”

Stating that they are moving with the focus of spreading tourism to 81 cities and 12 months, Ersoy expressed that Türkiye is ready for all targets.

“In this context, product diversity in tourism, especially in faith, gastronomy, sports, cycling, congress and health tourism, are supported by creation of archaeological attraction points, development of transportation infrastructure and new accommodation investments,” the minister said.

As part of efforts to promote gastronomy tourism, the Michelin Guide, which included Istanbul for the first time in 2022, will have at least another destination in Türkiye in 2023 and the number of Turkish destinations will increase to five by 2028, Ersoy said.