Turkey is switching to a sustainable and income-driven model in tourism for the first time, according to the 2023 Tourism Strategy, which was revealed during a recent conference held in Istanbul.

The new strategy was unveiled by the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, at a conference with domestic and foreign press members held in Istanbul Dolmabahce Palace on September 27 - World Tourism Day. 

The new strategy aims to welcome more than 75 million tourists and reach a tourism income of $65 billion in 2023.

The minister also showed the new 2020 Advertising Films to be used for promotion of Turkey abroad, developed in accordance with the approaches of the strategy.

At the press conference, Ersoy talked about Turkey’s Tourism Strategy for 2023:

“Turkey is a world leader that offers a wide array of travel opportunities and that is able to meet the ever-changing expectations of today’s tourists. By putting new strategies into practice set forth in Tourism Strategy for 2023, we will ensure that Turkey will advance to the upper league in global tourism market with its tourist number and size of income. We are aiming that more than 75 million tourists will visit our country and reach an income of $65 billion in 2023. We are planning to realise that by increasing the average spending of a tourist and raising the number of average nights from 9.9 to 10 and thus reaching the average level of spending of $86 per night.”

"A central agency model for touristic promotion and development, in practice for long years in the countries that are our competitors across the world, is brought into action in our country as well. It has been ensured that the sector has actively participated in tourism publicity through Tourism Promotion and Development Agency of Turkey and it has paved the way for sustainable and effective promotion by broadening the budget resources. We have increased the Ministry’s promotional budget that was $18 million in 2018 to $72 million in 2019 thanks to the change of policy. We aim to raise the promotional budget to $180 million with our Ministry and newly-established Tourism Promotion and Development Agency of Turkey in 2020," Ersoy said.
 
"We intend to meet the deficit with great promotional budgets of our competitors in tourism. In that line, we will work to reach a promotional budget of $220 million in 2023. We will increase our tourism incomes thanks to the promotions with Tourism Promotion and Development Agency of Turkey and as our income increases, our promotional budget will expand as well," he said. - TradeArabia News Service