Turkey extends scope of jet fuel subsidies to bring back tourists

ANKARA

DHA photo

Turkey has extended the scope of a $6,000 financial backing program for travel agencies carrying tourists to the country in a bid to enliven the sector, Reuters has reported. 

Airlines have already received $6,000 per flight when flying to airports in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, Antalya’s Alanya, the Aegean resorts of Dalaman, Bodrum and İzmir, as well as the Central Aegean province of Kütahya. 

According to a notice published in the Official Gazette on Feb. 15, these subsidies will also become online for airports in the Black Sea provinces of Trabzon, Ordu-Giresun, and Samsun’s Çarşamba, the Aegean province of Denizli, the Mediterranean province of Isparta and the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir. 

The $6,000 subsidy per scheduled charter flight will be offered until the end of this year to travel agencies carrying passengers on airplanes which have 100-passenger capacity. Closed group flights from Iran will also be eligible to benefit from these incentives. 

Some 30 percent increase in the subsidy will be applied for charter flights carrying at least 150 tourists by airplanes which have capacity of 200 passengers at least. 

Flights for hajj or Umrah visits will not be able to benefit from this package. 

Turkey’s vital tourism industry accounts for around 4.5 percent of the country’s $800 billion economy.