Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Ersoy stated that the highest number of visitors from the UK to Turkey was reached in 2019 when Turkey received 2.5 million tourists from the UK market.
He pointed out: “We set a very ambitious target of 3.5 million guests from the UK for this year. Hopefully, by the end of 2022, we will achieve these 3.5 million visitors. The data for the first 9 months were very, very good,” he said.
Ersoy said: “Turkey appeals to this potential with many products. In the past, guests from England mainly came to travel products such as sea, sand and sun. Now, with our new promotional strategies and campaigns, we have also gone to product diversity. We went not only to market diversity, but also to product diversity, and this year we are gaining the fruits of this. In particular, the British began to come to Istanbul heavily. Likewise, with archaeological visits and package tours, shifts towards Central Anatolia and the East began. Now, we will expand this and ensure that British tourists are included in new products to many sites of Turkey."
Minister Ersoy emphasized that they continue their ambitious focus on tourists from the UK market for the next year and he anticipates even more ambitious figures and growth next year. Rapid growth from 3.5 million UK travelers to 4.5 million could be achieved.
Minister Ersoy said that they had targeted 42 million tourists in Turkey at the beginning of the season this year. However, despite the war between Russia and Ukraine, they had increased the target to 47 million tourists, and currently, they had revised these figures again the new target is 50 million tourists in the country by the end of the year.