DRMumbai: The Turkish Indian Tourism Council & Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey conducted its six city Destination Turkey roadshow across India, from February 26 to March 2, 2019. The roadshow started from Delhi and was followed by Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai.
“Direct air connectivity between the countries plays an important role in enhancing mutual tourist flow. We are very happy to welcome IndiGo airline’s initiative to start flying to Istanbul from Delhi with non-stop flights. We have seen a huge increase in traffic to Turkey in the last two years out of which we have observed a 70 per cent increase from India to Turkey in 2018 compared to 2017. In this note, we are very glad that Indian citizens will now have a choice of travelling to Turkey with a low budget airline company. Turkey and India will be benefitted from the mutual growth of tourists,” said H Deniz Ersoz, Culture & Tourism Counsellor, Turkish Culture and Tourism Office in India.
Top travel agents, stakeholders, policy makers, IndiGo airlines and Gateway/VFS attended the roadshow in these cities. The DMCs and hotels interacted with the agents and shared insights on how to promote Turkey as a destination.
According to the Euromonitor International’s city arrival report, Istanbul and Antalya have been listed among the Top 5 cities in Europe in terms of international tourist arrivals in 2018. In 2018, Istanbul hosted more than 12 million international tourists whereas Antalya hosted almost 13 million tourists. According to the said report Antalya and Istanbul ranked third and fifth respectively in Europe.
Turkey has a lot to offer in terms of tourism, culture and commerce and it is imperative that the scope of engagement between both countries should now be taken to the second level. The number of Indian tourist arrivals, Indian weddings in Turkey and MICE engagements is increasing steadily which is a good sign. Hotels and resorts in Turkey are witnessing a significant surge in tourist arrivals. The heavy turnout at beach hotels and resorts has exceeded expectations.
