ISTANBUL, Jun 22 (NNN-ANADOLU) – The Turkish tourism industry is ready for the arrival of Russian tourists, after Moscow announced that flights between the two countries would resume today, but the COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns.
Sector insiders said, the return of Russian travellers would be a relief for the economy, but as the pandemic is not yet over, the virus-related rules should be strictly followed.
“We are happy in terms of the economy, but we need to take our measures for health,” Ertan Ustaoglu, president of Turkish Small Hotels Association, was quoted as saying.
Sururi Corabatir, head of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation, said, the industry is fully implementing the Safe Tourism Certificate programme and confident in itself.
“We will continue on our way without complacency … without compromising the measures,” Corabatir told reporters, noting, the Turkish sector has been eagerly awaiting this decision for months.
Nalan Yesilyurt, a board member of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, said, the Russian market is significantly important for Turkey’s coastal regions, especially for the Mediterranean province of Antalya, which Russian tourists visit the most.
“However, the news saying that COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Russia is alarming for the health,” she said.
According to the Turkish Civil Aviation General Directorate, it will be mandatory for Russian tourists to submit a document, issued by official authorities, showing they have been vaccinated at least 14 days before entering Turkey, or they had the disease in the past six months. Otherwise, a negative PCR test report will be required.
The Turkish government earlier announced that the tourism employees would get their COVID-19 inoculation done, before the tourism season this June.
Turkey started its mass vaccination campaign in Jan, and the total number of vaccines administered has approached 42 million by yesterday.
Serdar Karcilioglu, head of the Bodrum Professional Hotel Managers Association, took a distant attitude towards the arrival of Russian tourists, in terms of the volume of their contribution to the economy.
He said, 90 percent of Russians have already made their holiday reservations and preferred Europe.
“Turkey expects to lure only 1.5 million tourists at most, a significantly low figure for the industry,” Karcilioglu was quoted as saying, by the Cumhuriyet daily.
After receiving 45 million tourists in 2019, and generating a total of 34.5 billion dollars in revenue, Turkey suffered losses of over 70 percent in 2020, because of the pandemic.
Russia extended its flight ban on Turkey until Jun 21 (yesterday), because of the increasing COVID-19 daily cases in the country.– NNN-ANADOLU
