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Turkey is breaking records in the tourism sector and is in line with the goal of achieving its 2023 target. All travel lovers should know what they are.
The combination of outstanding natural scenery, historical and cultural attractions and high-quality cuisine makes Turkey one of the best tourist destinations in the world. As in previous years, the number of tourists arriving in Turkey in 2019 increased by 13.7% to 51.8 million, setting a historical record.
Tourism is one of Turkey’s most dynamic and fastest-growing economic sectors. In 2018, it directly accounted for 7.7% of total employment, employing 2.2 million people. The total income from tourism accounts for 3.8% of GDP. Tourism exports accounted for 51.9% of total service exports in 2018.
Turkey attracted 45.8 million international tourists in 2018, an increase of 21.7% over 2017, and created tourism revenue of 142.4 billion Turkish liras, an increase of 12% over the previous year. According to 2018 border statistics, the largest inbound markets include Russia (accounting for 13.0% of international inbound tourists) and Germany (9.8%). Other major markets include Bulgaria (5.2%), the United Kingdom (4.9%) and Georgia (4.5%).
Turkey’s domestic tourism industry is growing, with a total of 126.4 million registered trips in 2018. Compared with 2017, an increase of 4.6%. Among these trips, overnight visitors were 78.5 million (62.1%) and 47.9 million (37.9%) on the same day.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is responsible for the tourism industry in Turkey. Its duties are to investigate, develop, protect, maintain, evaluate, publish and promote the tourism industry to promote the strengthening of national unity and economic growth.
Overseas marketing and promotion are guided and coordinated by the Promotion Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and are provided through a network of 46 overseas offices in 41 countries/regions. At the regional level, Turkey has 81 provincial cultural and tourism bureaus, which preserve the historical, cultural and natural heritage, diversify the tourism industry and promote the region through cultural events, festivals and exhibitions in the region.
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Many professional institutions and private sector associations work closely with the Ministry to plan tourism and solve specific problems. These institutions include the Turkish Federation of Travel Agents, the Association of Tourist Hotels and Investors, the Association of Hotel Owners, the Association of Turkish Tourist Investors and the Federation of Tourist Guide Chambers. The Investment Office of the Presidential Palace of the Republic of Turkey also promotes investment opportunities in Turkey to the global business community and provides assistance to investors.
In August 2019, the Turkish Tourism Promotion and Development Agency was established to promote the development of tourism capabilities. The agency has an executive committee that includes representatives from the public and private sectors.
The main national policy documents related to tourism are the “Five-year National Development Plan” and the three-year rolling medium-term plan, the New Economic Plan. The current “Eleventh Development Plan from 2019 to 2023” is a long-term road map to improve Turkey’s economic conditions. The plan defines tourism as one of the main sectors that should be encouraged. As outlined in the New Economic Plan 2019-2021, Turkey has begun to prepare a tourism master plan to advance policy priorities. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism takes into account the tourism perspectives in the above documents and is formulating a strategic plan until 2023, which defines four-year priorities and sector activities.
The diversification and innovation of tourism activities in line with changes in consumption trends and technology, extending the tourism season, improving service quality, attracting high-consumption tourists and increasing accommodation time are the basic goals of the development plan. The annual plan outlining short-term priorities and roadmap is also issued and coordinated by the Office of Strategic Budget of the Presidential Palace of Turkey.
The main problems and challenges faced by the Turkish tourism industry include:
The government’s goal is to ensure a competitive, sustainable and inclusive tourism industry. Current policy goals include diversifying mass tourism products “Sunshine and Ocean” by developing high-quality niche tourism experiences that meet consumer expectations. These areas include cultural tourism, sports tourism, business/conference tourism, and health/healthcare sectors. Another important goal is to extend the season in order to benefit from the product throughout the year and spread the benefits of tourism in the region. The government also has an obligation to ensure that all tourists can make full use of tourism products and services.
The development of Turkey’s image and brand can be seen on the world stage. Therefore, it is important to increase Turkey’s market share. Market research reflects the ever-changing needs and requirements of today’s tourists. Current marketing activities are focused on scale and emerging markets. The focus is on increasing the participation of high-income tourists and increasing their consumption by increasing the length of stay. Prioritize India, the Republic of China, South Korea and Japan to increase transportation and tourism revenue.
Promotions cover a wide range of events and channels, including social and digital platforms, international travel expos, influencer hosting, special events, business and media travel, and intense public relations events. This emphasizes the breadth of products beyond “sun and sea”, including winter experiences, youth, golf, sailing, health and city tourism. Recently, by highlighting Turkey’s rich cultural and artistic heritage that has existed for thousands of years, marketing activities have been carried out based on the country’s unique values. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism focuses on both supply and demand, focusing on protecting heritage assets and increasing its market share by improving the country’s image and awareness and working to increase its value as a world brand. For the past two years, this dual approach has been supported, with a theme adopted every year, declaring 2018 as the year of Troy and 2019 as the year of Göbeklitepe. By promoting these cultural, artistic and tourism values and raising awareness of these values, this series of years aims to improve the image and perception of the country and strengthen its international brand.
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Another future-oriented plan is to develop new social networks and digital strategies for new markets. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has launched the Go Turkey platform, which has 6.5 million fans, based on the country’s natural, historical and cultural values. The platform contains information about destinations and products that focus on different experiences in lesser-known destinations, as well as other seasons and activities, including winter, health care, conferences, yachts, youth, and urban and cultural tourism. A wide range of social media activities covers posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and TripAdvisor.
At the same time, under the citizenship initiative, Pakistani and Turkish citizens will be able to obtain joint citizenship and dual passports from other countries, which will greatly enhance their already strong ties. At the beginning of this month, Pakistan extended the scheduled delivery time of the Turkish T129 attack helicopter, which was delayed due to US sanctions on Turkey. In May last year, Pakistan also included Turkey in its visa-free travel list, which was designed to promote tourism and business exchanges between the two countries.
Since Turkey and Pakistan became founding members of the Economic Cooperation Organization and members of the Organization of Developing Countries (D-8), the two countries have been working hard to negotiate preferential trade agreements with the aim of greatly increased trade and investment. Especially in the field of transportation and communications. Manufacturing, tourism and other industries. The governments of the two countries are trying to substantially increase bilateral trade volume by 2016. Pakistan’s export products include rice, sesame, leather, textiles, fabrics, sporting goods and medical equipment.
However, the founding of the centre is a big step towards a more developed and modern tourism industry in Pakistan. It is expected that the education sector will receive the same support and reforms in the near future. we can differently learn some things from turkey to make our Pakistan Tourism Industry more successful. if you wondering about the best places to visit in your Turkey Tour, here we have compiled a list of some of the worth visiting places of Turkey. Do share your thoughts in the comment section below:
Since 2017, Saba Ghani has been serving as the talented and dedicated chief content writer for Pakistan Tour and Travel & EMHI Solutions. With her exceptional writing skills and in-depth knowledge of the travel industry, she has been instrumental in crafting engaging and informative content that captivates the audience. You can catch her at [email protected] or Twitter
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