Türkiye Tourism in association with the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) kickstarted its extensive 6-city roadshow across India beginning January 30 with New Delhi. Around 30 suppliers from Türkiye including tour operators, hoteliers and DMCs are participating in the roadshows.
Onur Gözet, Deputy General Director of Promotion, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Türkiye, said that Indian tourists are likely to increase by 30 per cent to 3.50 lakh in 2024. “We have over 8,000 km of coastline. One can experience four seasons across the country. Our hospitality is the cornerstone of Turkish culture. Visitors can experience unique landscape in Cappadocia. Antalya is the perfect place for tourists looking to explore unique nature and culture. Presently, Germany is our top source market with almost 5.7 million tourists last year. The second placed is Russian Federation with 5.2 million tourists visiting Türkiye in 2023. Four million tourists from the UK visited Turkey in the same year, making it third largest source market of inbound tourism. From India, though statistics are not yet available, we expect 2,70,000 tourists from India in 2023. Almost 54 per cent of Indian travellers visited Istanbul; second placed is Antalaya with 11 per cent of visitors from India exploring the destination. After that destinations like Cappadocia and Pamukkule follow. We are working towards making India one of our top 10 source markets for international tourist arrivals,” said Gözet.
Both IndiGo and Turkish Airlines operate 14 daily flights including flights from Delhi and Mumbai.
Firat Sunel, Turkish Ambassador to India said, “I am glad that the number of Indian tourists visiting Turkiye is increasing year-on-year. Our long term target is to welcome 1 million tourists from India. We have airlines including Turkish Airlines and IndiGo flying everyday connecting Istanbul to New Delhi and Mumbai. Turkish Airlines is ready to begins flights to destinations like Kolkata, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai.”
The roadshows will also cover other major Indian cities, including Kolkata (January 31, 2024), Chennai (February 1, 2024), Hyderabad (February 2, 2024), Bengaluru (February 5, 2024), and Ahmedabad (February 6, 2024).
