The turkish government calls on the federal government to defuse the travel advice for turkey, which has been tightened during the political crisis between the two countries.
"We expect positive messages towards turkey from our german counterparts," tourism minister numan kurtulmus told german journalists this thursday in antalya.
These messages should include "that it is not dangerous for german citizens to visit turkey". Kurtulmus expressed confidence that tourism had overcome the crisis of the past two years and that the number of german holidaymakers would also increase significantly.
The government in ankara has recently begun efforts to normalize relations with berlin again. German tourists were still the largest group of tourists in turkey until 2016, but their numbers had already dropped significantly by then. In 2017, the decline continued. The reason were terrorist attacks and a coup attempt in turkey as well as political tensions between ankara and berlin, which had their origin also in the arrest of german staatsburger.
In july 2017, the foreign office therefore tightened security advisories, which have since warned of arbitrary arrests that could occur in all parts of the country "including regions frequented by tourists". Tour operators report that the number of bookings in germany for turkey has nevertheless increased again significantly this year.
From 2015 to 2016, the number of foreign tourists in turkey fell by a good 30 percent to 25.4 million. A similar decline was recorded in the group of german holidaymakers, of whom only 3.9 million came to turkey in 2016.
Kurtulmus said 32.4 million foreign tourists visited turkey in 2017 – just under two million fewer than in pre-crisis 2015. They had provided for an estimated 26 billion dollars in revenue. The minister said that in 2023 – the hundredth year of the founding of the republic – turkey aims to reach 50 million foreign visitors and a turnover of 50 billion dollars. He expected six to seven million of the 50 million visitors to come from germany.
Kurtulmus also said that the subsidies for charter flights to turkey introduced during the 2016 crisis would continue at least this year and next. Until the turn of the year, the government subsidized every flight with at least 100 passengers to the tune of 6,000 dollars. Now the demand should be seasonally staggered and between 1500 and 9000 dollars per machine, he said. The 2018 budget includes $220 million for this purpose.
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