Turkey keen to welcome 5 million Russian tourists in 2017

By Azernews

By Gunay Hasanova

Turkey and Russia seek to strengthen their ties through expanding interaction in tourism sphere.

Turkish tourism sector expects to receive about five million Russian tourists next year, RIA Novosti reported with reference to President of Turkish Travel Agencies Union Basharan Ulusoy.

"We are very pleased that relations between the two countries have been improved, number of charter flights rose again", Ulusoy said.

“We hope next year the number of Russian tourists won’t only be fully restored to its previous level but also will increase and in 2017 we will welcome more than 5 million tourists from Russia.”

Ulusoy believes that the abolition of visas for Turkish citizens will increase the tourist flow from Turkey to Russia.

"Tourism should be mutual, but to increase the number of tourists from Turkey to Russia, it is necessary, first of all, to abolish visas and then the number of Turkish tourists will increase in two or three times,” added Ulusoy.

The number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey was 3.65 million people in 2015 falling by 18.6 percent compared to 2014.

Earlier, Co-chair of Russian-Turkish intergovernmental commission Alexander Novak said that Russia is interested in attracting tourists from Turkey.

“I would like to mention that Russia is also interested in attracting tourists from Turkey,” said Novak, adding that there is unused potential in this field between Turkey and Russia.

Tourism sphere is one of the main cooperation areas between the two countries, he said, mentioning that the tourist flow from Russia to Turkey and charter flights between the two countries have already been fully restored.

Charter air service between Russia and Turkey were suspended for nine months due to the crisis in relations between the two countries after Turkish fighter jet shot down the Russian Su-24 bomber in Syria in November 2015.

As a result, the tourists flow from Russia to Turkey decreased by 90 percent in the first months of 2016.

The two sides began to restore ties after President of Turkey Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin apologizing for downed aircraft. Later, Putin signed a decree repealing the ban on charter flights to Turkey on June 30.  In turn, Russian government adopted the corresponding resolution on August 28.

Hence, the first charter took off on September 2.