As a country, we anticipate that we will close 2020 with a loss of about 70-75 percent with 12-15 million visitors and tourism revenue of $ 10 billion. We think that 2021 will be much better for Turkish tourism.

THE DEVELOPMENTS in tourism has a serious contribution to the country’s economy. In 2019 Turkey has achieved revenues of $34.5 billion thanks to tourism industry. This means that 96.6% of Turkey’s foreign trade deficit was closed by tourism revenues. Therefore, tourism reached a better point than ever in 2019 with the efforts of the whole sector. As of 2020, we faced a very different test due to the pandemic that affected the whole world. Tourism is one of the sectors most adversely affected by Covid 19 on a global scale. With the onset of the epidemic, travels ended and then cancellations began.

Almost no tourism activity took place in the second quarter of the year. Since the third quarter, both domestic tourism has started in our country and we have started to host foreign visitors. Travel agencies and tour operators, which are the number one actors in the marketing of our country abroad, managed to bring foreign tourists despite the pandemic. Along with the normalization steps, there has been a slow movement in domestic tourism in Turkey since the beginning of June. In July and August, foreign tourists started to come to our country from important markets such as Ukraine, England, Germany and Russia where we have a mass tourism background. During the pandemic process, rather than the increase in the number of tourists, we focused on hosting our guests in the best way and ensuring that they spend their holidays in health, peace and security. The year is not yet over, but in the summer season, we have managed to become the country hosting the largest number of tourists among the other countries in the Mediterranean basin.

The number of foreign tourists visited our country in the first 9 months of 2020 is 9.4 million. When we add our citizens living and working abroad, the number of visitors reaches 11.9 million. Turkey became the country giving the best tourism services in pandemic conditions. In this way, it has differentiated itself positively from its rival countries in the Mediterranean and came to the fore. Especially since March, with the spread of the epidemic in Europe and the imposition of restrictions on international travel by closing the borders of many countries, there has been a sharp decline in tourism.

As a result, world tourism shrank by 70 percent. We can say that tourism industry in our country has faced a decrease at the same rate due to the pandemic. Before the pandemic, Turkey’s 2020 goal was to reach 56 million foreign visitors and generate more than $ 40 billion in tourism revenue. Unfortunately, these goals will not be achieved due to the pandemic. As a country, we anticipate that we will close 2020 with a loss of about 70-75 percent with 12-15 million visitors and tourism revenue of $ 10 billion.

Recent vaccination news improves the morale of tourism professionals. We think that 2021 will be much better for Turkish tourism and travel agencies. TÜRSAB is an institution that is in constant contact with tourism associations and representatives of other countries, especially the World Tourism Organization. On 27 September, World Tourism Day, we called for the creation of a similar structure in the G20 as T20 (the first 20 countries in World Tourism), based on the point that problems should be solved together by collaborating globally to ensure sustainability in tourism.

With T20, our aim is to set an example for developing countries in world tourism, to provide sustainability by moving forward to service and quality in tourism, to minimize the problems experienced, to prevent unfair competition and to contribute to the World economy by enlarging the world tourism market. After the pandemic, many dynamics in tourism activities has changed. During this period, we also saw that the sense of holiday making began to change. People have started to prefer more boutique holiday types.

Adventure, caravan, nature, culture and alternative tourism varieties came to the fore. Tourism varieties that offer a holiday intertwined with nature, where there are few people, have become a new trend. Culture and Faith Destination Workshop was held in the first week of November, covering the provinces of Diyarbakır, Mardin and Şanlıurfa.

As TÜRSAB, we participated broadly in this workshop. In this Workshop the decision to create different and new tour routes in southeastern Anatolia was made. In the post-pandemic period, competition in the World tourism industry will be very intense. It’s important that we keep ourselves ready for this period. Protecting the travel agencies that promote and market Turkey’s tourism values around the world and take on the most important task in this aspect is of great importance for the future of tourism.

A very large part of the tourists visiting Turkey come here thanks to the great efforts of travel agencies. In this regard, travel agencies need to be supported and ensure that they get through this difficult process. The support provided to our sector will be of great benefit to the growth of our country’s tourism in a competitive environment that will increase in the post-pandemic period.