Turkey has taken the top two spots in TripAdvisor’s annual Travellers’ Choice Awards, naming our very own Olu Deniz and Icmeler as the beach destinations to head to in Europe.
Antalya also came in at seventh place in the awards – making Turkey home to three of the top 10 choice beach spots in Europe, according to TripAdvisor`s community of millions of travellers.
This month, Turkey has also been batting off competition in the bloggersphere in the European heats for Best City to Visit 2012. At time of press, Fethiye and Istanbul had glided their way into the semi-finals in the travel tournament lead by globetrotting blogger Anil Polat, aka FoXnoMad. That’s no surprise to us at Oceanwide Properties – we’ll be backing the Turkey campaign to see our cities of business and historic natural beauty at their rightful top spot.
Despite the impact of the global economic recession and traveller concerns caused by unrest in the Middle East, tourism increased in Turkey in 2011 with over 31 million visitors recorded. Turkey was the 7th most visited holiday destination in the world in 2010 according to the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
With increasing numbers of tourists choosing Turkey for a holiday, longer-term stay or even a permanent move – we won`t be surprised to see Turkey to have edged up the soon to be released 2011 rankings.
[Source: TripAdvisor.co.uk, FoxNoMad, Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, UNWTO]
