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Turkey to offset cost of air travel for Azerbaijani tourists

28 September 2015 17:49 (UTC+04:00)
Turkey to offset cost of air travel for Azerbaijani tourists

By Amina Nazarli

To reduce losses in tourism caused by the economic crisis, Turkey continues to work on increasing tourism as a potential stream of revenue for the country.

The Turkish government announced that it would provide support for travel agents in order to prevent flight cancellations. The country intends to compensate the cost of air travel for tourists from 13 countries, including Azerbaijan.

Turkey will pay $6,000 of the fuel costs per plane for the transit of tourists travelling by air until November 30.

Along with Azerbaijan, Ankara intends to compensate transportation costs for tourists from Russia, Iran, Ukraine, Moldova, Tajikistan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.

The airports that will be involved in the campaign are Antalya Gazipasha-Alanya, Antalya, Mugla Dalaman, Mugla Milas-Bodrum, and Izmir Adnan Menderes.

Earlier, Turkey’s economy minister, Nihat Zeybekci said the country would do everything possible to increase the number of Russian tourists in 2015. He added that the deterioration of relations between Russia and several European presents an opening to attract Russian tourists to Turkey.

The Turkish Statistical Institute said that in the second quarter of 2015, Turkey's revenues from tourism fell sharply compared to the same period last year.

In the second quarter of this year, Turkey's tourism revenues decreased by 13.8 percent and amounted to $7.733 billion.

Economist Vugar Bayramov told Azernews that in 2014, the number of tourists visiting Turkey reached 35 million people. And if last year a record number of tourists travelled to Turkey, this year, due to the terrorist acts this summer, the country expected a drop of up to 5 million people in 2015.

That’s why in order to increase the number of travelers from Europe and other neighboring countries, Turkey has adopted a series of tourism-boosting measures.

As Turkey is one of the most visited countries on the planet, it is expected that after this measure, the number of tourists to Turkey will increase.

“If Turkey pays part of the cost of airline transportation, then travel agencies in Azerbaijan will also reduce ticket prices, leading to an increase in tourism to Turkey,” the economist noted.

Moreover, he added that it will possible only if, after the measures are adopted by Turkey, Azerbaijan’s airline AZAL will also reduce ticket prices, otherwise there will be no increase in tourist flow.

“If AZAL does not reduce ticket prices, the measures taken by Turkey will not have any effect on travel costs using Azerbaijan’s travel agencies,” he said.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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