ANTALYA, Turkey, 30 April 2005 — Turkey hopes to flood its coffers with the proceeds of sales of its tourism products to its Gulf neighbors, mainly Saudi Arabia. And to do so, it has set out a broad vision to tap tourism market by holding promotional programs, allocating special budgets for generating awareness among Gulf tourists and by further easing travel and visa curbs for tourists.
“The renewed move on the part of Ankara is backed by the Turkish government at a time when Saudi-Turkish commercial relations are growing progressively”, said Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Atilla Koc, while opening a tourism congress in the beautiful Turkish resort city of Antalya here this week. A 17-member Saudi business delegation, scheduled to leave for Istanbul on May 6, will further boost trade and tourism links
This move is mainly intended to attract more Gulf tourists to visit that country with beautiful coastlines of Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Sea with an outlet through the Bosphorus. Atilla was speaking during a Turkish tourism congress entitled “Tukey’s Antalya A World Brand” organized by Turkish Airlines and Rixos Hotels in cooperation with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
On the sidelines of the Antalya tourism congress, a “World Interuniversity Project Competition” was also launched to promote Antalya, Turkey’s principal holiday resort with shady palm-lined boulevards and a prize-winning marina, as a word destination for tourism. Antalya and its adjoining areas offer the best facilities for sunbathing, sports activities like wind surfing, water skiing, sailing, mountain climbing and spelunking.
In reply to a question about Saudi-Turkish relations, Atilla said that “Saudi Arabia and the other five nations of the GCC grouping will be the priority areas in our tourism plan”. The minister, while replying a question about the long-term look-Europe policy in terms of economy and tourism, said that that “we will intensify our efforts to promote relations in all sectors with the Gulf states including tourism sector”.
The renewed move on the part of Turkey is mainly intended to attract more Gulf tourists, who have chosen to go to countries like Malaysia and Iran following Sept. 11 terror attacks. During the conference, the Turkish minister gave an overview of Turkish tourism saying that Antalya is emerging as a major global tourism brand and “a global brand is the magic key for prosperity”. He said that Antalya has a lot to offer to tourists from Middle East especially from Saudi Arabia.
Referring to the new tourism projects coming up in Turkey, senior executives of Rixos Hotel Tekirova said that “a number of resort, fun & entertainment and five-star hotel projects are coming up in this country”. “In fact, our Rixos Hotel chain itself is getting ready to open another new world-class $130 million premium hotel in Belek (Antalya)”, they said. This will be in addition to the existing five resort hotels owned by Rixos Hotel chain of Turkey.
They pointed out that “this new resort hotel on an area of 405,000 sqm is being designed to fulfill all expectations with its social and sightseeing environment”. “This hotel will have the facility to pick up its guests on a private jet from any country, whereas a private crew including a driver, maid and cook will serve the villa guests during their stay in this new premium property”, said the Rixos executives.
Asked about plans to increase flight frequencies on Gulf-Turkey sector, Fazli Danisman, vice president for Turkish Airlines said that “we will be shortly introducing new flights to at least two Gulf destinations besides the existing ones to Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries”. The events in the resort city of Antalya were sponsored by Rixos Hotel, Turkish Airlines, Finansbank, AKTOB and dDf besides the ministry of tourism and Antalya Municipality. The events were also attended by many journalists from Saudi Arabia and Middle East countries besides a number of Turkish officials. Prominent among those, who attended the events include Prof. Ali Alp, deputy secretary at the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Sayin Nina Oger, chairman of Oger Tour board of directors and Dr. Yusuf Ornek, Vasco Tourizm general manager.