Turkey attracts more GCC visitors

Dubai: Despite the world's financial crisis, which had a severe effect on international tourism, the number of GCC tourists selecting Turkey as favourable destination increased in 2009 by 16.45 per cent.

Figures from recent statistics have shown that over 27 million tourists from around the world visited Turkey in 2009, an increase of 2.8 per cent over 2008.

GCC tourists comprised the biggest increase as the number from Kuwait rose 21.36 per cent, followed by those from the UAE, up 12.07 per cent, Bahrain 12.49 per cent, Saudi Arabia 20.31 per cent, and Qatar 0.82 per cent.

Emin Kaya, the cultural and information attaché in Dubai and the Turkish Tourism Office manager in the UAE, is expecting these figures to increase despite the financial crisis.

Strong relationship

He said Turkey's rich cultural and tourist attractions can attract the Arabs, especially GCC citizens, to visit Turkey.

"We realise the cultural and religious values of the GCC people which sustain the strong relationships between Turkey and the GCC countries," he said in a statement.

"Our marketing and promotional strategies during 2010 will include various activities and events in order to attract more tourists to choose Turkey for their next holiday plans.

"Historical and cultural exhibitions, free tours to journalists, participation in ATM Dubai, and musical and traditional concerts and dances throughout the GCC countries are all part of a whole strategy to bring people's attention to Turkey and to show its ability to be a very interesting tourist destination.

"We work hard to support the vision and efforts of the Ministry of Tourism in Ankara that aim to sustain the tourism promotional activities in this region and to achieve a continuous growth for the Turkish tourism products until we reach all regional and international markets.

"Building sustainable relationships with the region's countries is a very important part of these efforts. Turkey and the UAE, for example, have been working together in the last few years in order to build new plans to support the cultural and tourism interchange between both countries," said Kaya.