Early holiday reservations point to a 15-20% rise in the number of German tourists visiting Turkey next year, Michael Frenzel, president of the federal association of Germany’s tourism sector told Reuters on October 23.
“The pricing of Turkish holiday packages are quite competitive when compared to other destinations, helping people to come back to Turkey,” Frenzel said.
Ankara’s relations with Berlin soured during the April referendum campaign in Turkey when Erdogan threw "Nazi" jibes at Germany after German officials refused to allow Turkish ministers to attend pro-Erdogan rallies to address expatriate voters. As tensions escalated then-German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in August warned German tourists and other German nationals to exercise more caution when travelling to Turkey.
Generally Germans account for nearly 15% of tourists arriving in Turkey each year. Last year, however, 3.89mn Germans spent their holiday in the country, a 30% decline from 2015. Between January and August this year, the number of German tourists visiting Turkey fell by 7.9% y/y to 2.5mn.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu commented on the situation saying: “There has been an increase in tourists from Britain. We see that there will be an increase in tourists from Germany and from all over Europe next year and there will be a boom in demand,” Hurriyet Daily News reported on October 22.
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