Turkey expects China to be important market in 2018
By Kamila Aliyeva
As bilateral ties between Beijing and Ankara continue to strengthen, Turkey is anticipating a record numbers of Chinese arrivals for forthcoming 2018 Turkey Tourism Year.
Turkey’s Culture Minister Numan Kurtulmus said that China will be an important market in the coming year.
Kurtulmus, talking to Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of a session of the UN World Tourism Organization in Chia, said the year 2018 will be favorable as it has been declared as the “Turkey Tourism Year” in China.
He added to mark the year various events will be held in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and other cities.
Kurtulmus, who met culture ministers from Indonesia, Azerbaijan and Iran during the session, said his talks with them were fruitful.
“Southeast Asia and particularly China will be new markets for us in the coming year,” he said, adding that this may bring millions of tourists to Turkey.
The minister voiced hope that Turkey would come out as a more important member of the world tourism organization. “We will set head offices in Istanbul or other cities.”
2017 has seen a return to growth in Chinese arrivals to Turkey, following the large fall in 2016 on the backdrop of security issues in the country.
Roughly 99,000 Chinese arrivals to Turkey seen in the first half of 2017 represent a 14.6 percent year-on-year increase against 2016’s equivalent figure of 86,000, yet this is still far below the 145,000 recorded the first half of 2015. 2015 saw 314,000 arrivals from China.
With next year having been designated the Turkey Tourism Year in China, record arrival numbers are being forecast for 2018.
Kurtulmus earlier said that he expects 200,000 Chinese tourists to visit Turkey by the end of this year.
The rapidly growing Chinese population is in search of better quality products and services. Different tourism areas such as shopping tourism, health tourism and golf tourism are becoming very popular among the Chinese people.
China’s outbound tourism was 120 million people in 2015. The number of tourists going abroad in the next five years is estimated to reach 600 million.
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