Several planes carrying Russian tourists landed last week in Turkey's Mediterranean provinces of Mugla and Antalya, Xinhua reported the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) as saying on March 23.

They were reportedly the first such plane loads of holidaymaking Russians to arrive in the key tourism provinces this year. Tourism industry figures no doubt hope the arrivals will prove a sign of many more to come, given Turkey’s tourism industry, devastated by the coronavirus crisis, last year saw revenues fall by around $22bn y/y and is hoping to bounce back now that coronavirus vaccination programmes are in progress in many countries. However, the UK, from where Turkey usually draws huge numbers of tourists each year, is yet to decide whether it will allow its citizens to take summer holidays abroad in 2021, despite the fact that its vaccination programme is among the most successful in the world so far in terms of the number of people vaccinated.

Mugla boasts resort towns including Bodrum, Marmaris and Antalya, among the most popular destinations in Turkey for Russian tourists.

TURSAB was reported as saying that the frequency of tourism flights to Turkey from Russian cities would increase significantly starting from April, with the launch of multiple charter flights that are expected to operate until November.

"As travel plans for 2021 accelerate in these days, we see positive signals regarding requests for Turkey from our leading markets," Firuz Baglikaya, head of TURSAB, was quoted as saying, mainly referring to demand from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and the UK.

"Apparently foreign guests have very much missed Turkey during the pandemic, and we also missed them," he said in a cited written statement.

Baglikaya predicted that Turkey will attract more than 20mn foreign tourists this year, up 70% y/y.

Turkey's tourism authorities, including TURSAB, recently asked the government to vaccinate tourism sector employees as a priority before the new tourism season starts.

"Our request ... was deemed positively by our government," Baglikaya was further quoted as saying, adding: "Therefore, until the beginning of the season, our industry will be ready to welcome our guests in all respects."

Turkey started a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme in mid-January using a vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech.

To date, more than 13.6mn doses have been administered to a population of 83 million, according to health ministry data.