Known as the ‘MüzeKart’ Turkiye’s Museum Card sales have reached new heights in the first seven months of 2023, with a total 2.1m sold even with the new increased price of 60 lira. Valid for Turkish Citizens and enabling them to visit more than 300 museums and archaeological sites throughout Turkiye, it looks set to break the record of 2022 which reached 2.93m, which equated to an approximate increase of 63% compared with the previous year.
Whilst the MüzeKart is specifically for Turkish Citizens, Tourists are able to purchase similar cards which will give them discounted access to a range of sites, and these include a 15 day museum pass for the whole of Turkiye, a 5 day pass for Istanbul, a museum pass for Cappadocia and passes for the Aegean or Mediterranean. Though you aren’t exempt from security checks, you can skip the queues which can be especially useful if you are visiting during peak times. If you want more information on the card you can visit the dedicated site here: https://muze.gen.tr/MuseumPasses
For those who had the card – among all the sites the Mevlana Museum in Konya was the most visited so far this year, attracting a total of 1.66m visitors, with Ephesus ranking second and Hierapolis at third. The Galata Tower and the ruins at Göreme came in fourth and fifth.
In terms of foreign arrivals to Turkiye in 2023 it continues to rise with a 16% increase for the first seven months of 2023, when compared to the same period in 2022, equating to a figure of approximately 26.76m visitors between January and July. July alone saw 7.14 million tourists which is an increase of 7% on last year and Istanbul attracted the most amount of visitors over the seven-month period with 9.77m. Antalya came second with 7.7m tourists, easily surpassing pre-pandemic records.
Arrivals into Turkiye have mainly been spurred by an influx of tourists from Germany and the UK although Russians, Bulgarians and Iranians have also been active. The increase in daily flights to and from Turkiye has also helped with many airports reporting significant increases. Revenues are also up by about 27% year on year and the Turkish Government expect a total income from Tourism to hit $56bn by the end of the year.
