Turkey’s tourism season to begin in April amid COVID-19 vaccination program

January 13, 2021 Moscow

Turkey pins its hope on the massive COVID-19 vaccination program to revive its lucrative tourism industry in 2021, which has been dealt a heavy blow by the raging pandemic.

ISTANBUL, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) — Turkey’s COVID-19 vaccination program would help the new tourism season to begin in April, Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced on Tuesday.

Ersoy said that the number of daily coronavirus cases is expected to drop below 1,000 until April in the country with the help of mass vaccinations, which would start on Thursday or Friday this week, the Hurriyet daily quoted the minister as saying.

“We believe that the season will begin as of April,” Ersoy noted.

In the photo take on May 28, 2020, municipal workers in full protective gear disinfected the spice bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey, one of the most significant tourism spots, to curb the spread of COVID-19. (Xinhua/Yasin Akgul)

The minister noted that this year new important archaeological excavations would be conducted in the southeastern region of the country, and new tourism destinations would be in service of foreign tourists.

He pointed out that Turkey’s sector representatives are also working on several other important projects in different regions to diversify the country’s tourism products and make them ready for the new season.

“The efforts of expanding the tourism activities to all of the 81 provinces are continuing at full speed,” Ersoy said, noting the sector expects a V-shaped recovery this year with a significant growth rate.

“Still we do not have a chance to catch the 2019 figures in 2021, but we hope that we will exceed 23.3 billion U.S. dollars in tourism revenue,” he also remarked.

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