Visas 'restrict freedom' of Turkish globetrotters

ISTANBUL

The poll showed that most travelers changed their plans in order to avoid spending time on visa duties.

Turkish people who like to travel and see different parts of the world face many difficulties. The visa requirement that other countries demand from travelers leads Turkish people to cancel or abandon their travel plans. According to Skyscanner, an airplane ticket search engine, Turkish travelers complained about visa duties the most.

The poll, which looked at a sample of more than 1000 people in Turkey, revealed the thoughts of Turkish travel lovers. While Turkey has a long history of visa duties with other countries, most travelers changed their plans in order to avoid spending time on visa duties. For most of the travelers, the visa duties were felt to be unnecessary and tiring. A great majority, 92 percent, of Turkish travelers said that visa applications denied both their travelling freedom and their personal freedom. Turkish travelers also said that they were very unhappy because of these applications and 78 percent of them thought that Turkey should apply visa rules to those countries that demanded visas from Turkey.

Recently, a total of 70 countries have abandoned their visa requirements for Turkey and this development has made travel lovers happy. However, travelers said they did not believe that European countries would abandon the visa requirement. A total of 84 percent of the travelers in Turkey agreed that the Schengen visa would not be lifted.

The survey also revealed that 71 percent of travelers did not want to visit countries that demand visas from them. Only 21 percent of them thought that the visa was important.

On the other hand, a total of 82 percent of respondents said that their visa applications were always accepted. However, they also said that following the procedures and collecting the necessary documents was a long and tiring process and that this made them abandon their travel plans. Collecting the required documents was regarded as the most tiring part of the process, as travelers felt there were too many of them.

Visa fees and visa officials

Only 27 percent of travelers complained about the visa fees. A total of 16 percent of them felt that the waiting period for visas was very long. Moreover, 9 percent said that visa department officials had been very rude to them. One out of 10 respondents complained about the behaviors of the visa officials.

The survey analysts also answered the question: “If there were no visa application, which countries would you prefer to visit?” While 40 percent of them said that they would visit Schengen countries, 53 percent of them preferred to visit the UK, US and Australia. This also shows that Turkish people prefer to visit English speaking countries. The travelers would like to speak and understand the language of the country that they are traveling to.