Turkey strives to rank among the world's top 3 tourism destinations

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Despite February's deadly earthquakes in Turkey which claimed a confirmed 45,968 deaths in February this year, and a tourism industry that has been hard hit by Covid-19, wildfires and the Russian-Ukraine war, Turkey's culture and tourism minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, is determined to rank the country among the leading three countries in terms of global tourism.

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He said his aim was - by the end of 2023 - to have welcomed 60 million tourists and $56bn in tourism revenue, and to increase this number to 90 million visitors and R100bn in revenue in 2028.

Ersoy pointed out that in 2022, Turkey achieved a significant improvement in its global ranking by climbing three positions compared to 2019, securing the third spot in terms of the number of tourist arrivals.

To this end, approximately 45 million foreign tourists visited Turkey in 2022, pointing to an 80 percent increase from 2021.

Based on the most recent data provided by the tourism industry, Turkey experienced a notable increase in foreign tourist arrivals during the first four months of this year, with over 9.3 million visitors, representing a significant 27.5 percent year-on-year growth.

Additionally, tourism revenues surged by 32 percent to reach $8.69bn in the first quarter.