The Turkish authorities intend to support inbound tourism from Russia with the help of subsidies by giving tour operators 6 thousand dollars for each charter flight from Russia during the period from September 15 to November 30. In addition to Russia, tour operators of the CIS countries and Iran will also receive support the head of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Omer Celik said.
This decision by the government, the head of the ministry noted, was made because of falling demand for leisure, caused by the complicated political situation in Turkey and the crisis in Russia, Daily Sabah writes.
Cooperation of the Ministry with tour operators and tourism promotion program allowed the decline in tourist flow from Russia to drop to the level of 20%, although at the beginning of the year this figure exceeded 30%. For example, Spain, France and Italy lost more than 40% of Russians. The measure on subsidizing charter flights will give Ankara the opportunity to bring the decrease in tourist flow from Russia to 10% by the end of the year, government believes.
As Turkish media reported, in the seven months of this year, more than 500 thousand fewer Russians travelled to Turkey compared to the figures of the previous year. Last year, during that time Turkey was visited by about 2 million Russian tourists. This year it was 1.4 million.
