Traveling to Turkey is best response to terror: UN tourism organization

ANKARA

Traveling to Turkey is the best way to respond to terror threats, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General Taleb Rifai said in the opening ceremony of the 21st East Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel exhibition on Jan. 26.

“There are many reasons to travel to Turkey. Firstly, Turkey is a perfect destination, everyone should definitely see it. But secondly, and most importantly, traveling to Turkey is the best response to terrorism,” Rifai said. 

“We should continue traveling to Turkey to see whose lives and agenda we have in effect; this is the only way we can respond to terrorism. History will show that Turkey will come back stronger,” he added.

2017 will be better than 2016 for tourism

Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister Nabi Avcı praised Rifai’s comments, adding that 2016 was a bad year for tourism worldwide and that terrorism hit many countries around the world.

“We were adversely affected by terror throughout 2016. No city in the world can say ‘I’m 100 percent safe’. Terrorism is a global phenomenon, it can happen anywhere in the world, and the fight against it has to be on a global scale. Turkey is a country with a lot of experience in this field. Hopefully, in the coming years, we will see that the effects of this are getting smaller and smaller,” he said.

“Our industry has been tested seriously on this. During 2016, despite all the adverse conditions, it showed an extraordinary effort to higher the quality of services. Hopefully, 2017 will be better than 2016, and 2018 will be better than 2017,” he added.