And here it is again, our weekly roundup of Turkey tourism news and press highlights over the past seven days…
Turkey’s new Ambassador for China speaks of the plans for Turkey China tourism year 2018. (Daily Sabah, November 19th, 2017) Abdulkadir Emin Onen, Turkey’s newly appointed envoy to China, spoke to the Daily Sabah of his post and plans to improve economic and trade ties with China in the coming year. Onen, previously one of President Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s Chief Advisors, has been given the role in hopes he will help strengthen cooperation in education, culture, tourism, industry, trade and finance. 2018 has been classed “Turkey Tourism Year” in China and there are roughly 50 projects on the go aiming to attract 1 million Chinese tourists to the country.
Turkey’s Ministry of Tourism’s, “Turkey Home” site reaches 6.5 Million Followers (Daily Sabah, 19th, 2017) “Turkey Home”, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s social media channel, is now ranked fourth globally according to new statistics. The digital initiative covering Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google+ was set up three years ago to help promote the country. This it certainly has done producing fabulous content, videos and images. It has come a long way in a short time reaching an impressive 6.5 million followers with the numbers rising daily.
Istanbul celebrating Italian Cuisine Week 20th – 26th November (Daily Sabah, November 16th, 2017) All those with a love for pizzas and pasta are in for a treat this week as global Italian Cuisine Week kicks off today, running through until Sunday. Celebrated last year for the first time, over 100 countries are taking part running varied activities and events from simple tasters and dining experiences to cookery courses and talks from true Italian chefs. For a better idea on the Istanbul itinerary, please follow the link to the article above.
Turkey’s Van attracting high numbers of Iranian tourists (YeniSafak, November 16th, 2017) Turkey’s South Eastern city of Van is attracting increasing numbers of Iranian tourists. Known as the commercial door between Turkey and Iran, Iranian tourists visiting the city have increased from 238,000 last year, to 338,161 over the first nine and a half months of this year. The year expected to end on more than 450,000. As commercial ties strengthen between the two countries, this boost in both trade and tourism is expected to come on by leaps and bounds in 2018 boosting interest and investment in the area and for Turkey.
Tourist numbers to Istanbul rise significantly from January to October. (Daily Sabah, 15th November 2017) According to an Anadolu Agency report, 9.1 million foreign tourists visited Istanbul’s Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen Airports, and Istanbul’s ports during the first 10 months of this year. This is a great improvement on last year when only 7.9 million were recorded, an increase of 16%.
Turkey and Qatar sign a number of tourism and trade agreements following Erdogan’s recent visit (Anadolu Agency November 15th, 2017) During the Presidents trip to Qatar as part of his tour of the Gulf States, he signed a number of new agreements to help boost tourism, trade and co-operation. President Erdogan was given a warm reception at the government complex where a declaration of intention in meteorological fields was signed alongside co-operation agreements for ‘friendly harbours’ and humanitarian assistance.
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