The coastal resort city of Antalya hit the headlines this week as early indications showed that a total of 515,993 tourists arrived in the first quarter of 2022, which is a huge increase of around 93% when compared to the same period last year.
Not only have relaxed restrictions, increased spending on marketing campaigns and re-started flight schedules contributed significantly to the increase, the ‘Safe Tourism Certificates’ have also played a major role, as it gives assurances to tourists that the Hotels, Bars & Restaurants in the area are following a strict set of guidelines, set out by the Turkish government.
Turkey, like many other countries, was hit hard during the recent pandemic with coastal towns such as Antalya hardest hit as tourism numbers depleted, and although more than 9m people visited in 2021 it was significantly lower compared to previous years.
Positive signs are back though and as the tourists start to return so does the optimism with many predicting a record year. So far, more than 100,000 Germans, 86,000 Russians and 58,000 Brits have visited Antalya in 2022, with many more on the way for the Easter & Summer vacation.
It’s no wonder that tourists continually flock to Antalya as it recently secured the title of the most popular Mediterranean destination for the second year running, hosting the highest number of tourists in the region during 2021. If it can win the title during the pandemic, and If indeed early predictions are correct, then it should have no problem winning the title again this year though some cities in Spain might have a word or two to say about that!
Official stats and figures also show that Turkey came fourth on the World Tourism list for 2021 hosting a total of 29.9m people. The top five, in order, were France, Mexico, Spain, Turkey and Italy.
