Kerim Yılmaz, the 2nd Chairman of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB) Alanya Representation Board (BTK) and Member of the Board of the Alanya Tourism Promotion Foundation (ALTAV), conveyed his expectations for 2023 by making a tourism evaluation of 2022. Yılmaz said, “The 2022 tourism season, which started with desperation and worries due to the pandemic that has been going on for two years, has been quite successful. Turkey’s tourism capital Antalya As of November 2022, it hosted 13 million tourists and this figure is expected to reach 14 million by the end of the year. The 5 million Russians we set as our target tourist Our figure has reached 3 million despite the ongoing war environment. Russia, Germany, England, Poland and the Netherlands were in the top 5, respectively. When we look at other years, 2022 was the year with the highest number of tourists from Germany and England.
‘WE ARE WAITING FOR A RECORD’
Expressing that people’s holiday desires and requests have increased after the pandemic, Yılmaz said, “Quality and quality service understanding of our region is in demand. Our expectations for 2023 are good. We hope that we will surpass 2019 in 2023 as a result of the negotiations with both tour agencies, hoteliers and aircraft companies. Early booking period is already active. Uncertainties during the pandemic period have disappeared. This year we expect early bookings to exceed the pre-pandemic rate. In addition, we have high hopes for the winter season as our region is a good destination for sports tourism. We think that the UK, which made a record visit, will be on the rise again in our region in 2023,” he said.
‘RESERVATION WARNING’
Yılmaz said, “As it can be understood from the rising graphic tables announced by our Ministry, we aim to break a record in 2023 by surpassing the statistics in 2019, which was a very good year”. TÜRSAB warned holidaymakers about making secure reservations through member travel agencies.
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