MINISTER ERSOY REVEALED TÜRKİYE’S TOURISM STRATEGY FOR 2023

“Türkiye’s Tourism Strategy is changing; it’s being transformed into Income and Market-Driven Growth and Promotion Model…”

- According to 2023 Tourism Strategy aiming to make tourism one of the strategically significant sectors in Türkiye, Türkiye is switching to a sustainable and income-driven model in tourism for the first time.

- The number of tourists targeted for 2023 is 75 million and tourism income targeted is 65 billion dollars.

- Produced in compliance with the objectives in Tourism Strategy for 2023 and introducing Türkiye as the address of rich and well-rounded experience diversity that the visitors are seeking today, “2020 Commercial Film” was shown for the first time.

The Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy revealed Türkiye’s Tourism Strategy for 2023 at the conference with the distinguished members of the press and sector held in Dolmabahce Palace, on September 27, World Tourism Day. The Minister also presented the new 2020 Commercial Films to be used for promotion of Türkiye abroad, developed by the approaches of the strategy.

Bringing Turkish tourism to a sustainable and income-driven growth model, Tourism Strategy for 2023 aims to welcome more than 75 million tourists and reach a tourism income of 65 billion dollars in 2023, following the studies to be conducted and multi-directional new practices.

Tourism Strategy for 2023, within the scope of targets determined in 11th Development Plan and benefit from the outputs of 3rd Council of Tourism, summarizes the path to the great change and improvement expected to be made in Türkiye’s tourism sector. At the press conference, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy talked about Türkiye’s Tourism Strategy for 2023:

Türkiye will Advance to the Upper League

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

Sustainable Approach in Promotional Activities

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 the Tourism Promotion and Development Agency of Türkiye 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 (FROM) 18 million dollars in 2018 to 72 million dollars in 2019 thanks to the change of policy.

We aim to raise the promotional budget to 180 million dollars with our Ministry and newly established Tourism Promotion and Development Agency of Türkiye in 2020. In cooperation with the newly established Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, our Ministry aims to raise the promotional budget to 180 million dollars in 2020.

We intend to meet the deficit with great promotional budgets of our competitors in tourism that are in use for the studies, which are the products of a long-time investment through yearly increments. In that line, we will work to reach a promotional budget of 220 million dollars in 2023. We will increase our tourism incomes thanks to the promotions with the Tourism Promotion and Development Agency of Türkiye and as our income increases, our promotional budget will expand as well.

Diversification of Promotions

In line with these objectives, we will diversify our promotional activities on TV, outdoor, magazine, editorial scripts, digital and social media in a focused and intensive way. We are doing market researches in target markets to reach the expectations of the visitors and we’re taking place in all channels by diversifying our promotional strategy following the said researches. We emphasize bringing experience-based Türkiye portal and digital applications into action.

Besides foreign visitors, we will also carry out promotional studies for domestic visitors to improve domestic tourism. We will focus on new product and destination studies, especially in newly-discovered or developing touristic regions.

Furthermore, in this sense, we target to increase the package tour rates to 15 – 60 percent by ensuring the security of supply.

Diversification of Tourism Products and Target Groups

We’re also expecting an increase in the number of visitors with high spending potential. We will develop new products in this aspect. We will approach gastronomic promotion under a separate title. We will add new ones among our cities registered by UNESCO. We will draw a ‘Taste Map of Türkiye’ and create gastronomy routes. We will take actions to improve health tourism and increase the shopping expenses of the tourists. We will focus on many fields ranging from educational tourism to sports, faith tourism, third age target group, congress tourism, festivals, and events and to cruise-yacht tourism. We will continue to open new museums across Türkiye. We will increase the number of our items in UNESCO’s World Heritage Lists. With new culture destinations, we will create routes for land and road cycling bicycle tourism We will increase the number of “Bicycle-Friendly Hotels” as well. By keeping digitalization at the center of all our studies, we will provide the experience that the new-generation tourists are looking for before their trip. For faith tourism, we will put ‘Digital Faith Map and Faith Portal of Türkiye’ into practice.”

New Target Markets

Our next promotional efforts will focus on the main markets that are currently sending large volumes of tourists to Türkiye as well as the emerging Far East and Pacific markets; namely, China, India, South Korea, and Japan, that happen to fuel tourism industry’s growth worldwide. Our target scope will expand to include the developing Central and Eastern European markets.

Regulations on transportation, capacity, and direct flights will be in place in a bid to grow tourist arrivals from Far Eastern and Pacific countries. Our 2018-2023 estimations show annual average growth of over 30% in the number of incoming tourists from the Asia-Pacific Region. The Far Eastern and Oceanian regions are expected to send an approximate one million tourists in 2019, and another four million in 2023.

All the Turkish Airlines destinations, current, and future, are now our target markets. We engage in mutual extra slot commitments with China, Japan, India, and South Korea. We will add to our marketing and advertising activities in partnership with Turkish Airlines. We will increase Türkiye-bound solo travels.

A Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Development in Tourism

“We will speed up our studies for sustainable and eco-friendly development in tourism. In this sense, we support the municipalities as we place importance, especially on the investments for treatment plants in coastal towns that are designated tourist areas. In the future, we will focus more on environmental certifications like Blue-Flag and Green-Star practices in the facilities.

Promotional Film Highlights the Diversity of Experience in Turkish Tourism

The Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy also shared the new promotional film that will be used in 2020 by Türkiye and that will underlie the promotional campaign at the press conference.

The film, with its impressive editing, puts forward that Türkiye is an ideal target where today’s visitors can have the unique travel and exploration experience they’re looking for. The film also emphasizes that Türkiye is a sought destination for family trips.

Türkiye’s 90-second promotional film, which has three individual versions for Western, Asian and Far Eastern markets, underlines both the status and cultural diversity and depth of Türkiye. Telling about the experience-based travel with an innovative and different approach, the film features the nature, history, cultural treasures, faith destinations, gastronomy, shopping, fashion and art world, and the entertainment life.

New Promotional Film, a fruit of a two Months Hard work

The commercial film presented at the press conference held by the Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, is a product of a two-month hard work by a team of 98 people in five different cities and shot at eleven different locations.

The film was shot at various locations such as Turuncpinari, Cennet Bay, Babadag, Patara, Kekova, Cappadocia (Balloon), Karanlik Kilise (Dark Church) in Goreme Open Air Museum, Kas Road, Hierapolis and Istanbul. Moreover, for shooting, drones were used at Butterfly Valley, Yassica Island, Suluada, Gocek Bays, Kas-Fethiye Road, and Oludeniz. In addition to the promotional film, 19 short films were also prepared. These 10-15 seconds short films will be broadcast as “serial commercial films” on the channels around the world as well as the social media outlets. The new promotional film will constitute the foundation of an integrated marketing campaign to be organized by the Ministry in 2020 with all versions. Along with the commercial films, the Ministry will conduct a 360-degree communication campaign comprised of public relations works, next-generation digital applications, online and printed publication ads, fairs and special events specifically envisaged for each market.