Archive for the ‘News’ Category

On Monday and Tuesday last week, life across Turkey was brought to a complete halt by the worst winter weather experienced in the country for over 30 years, which resulted in the cancellation of around 200 flights on Monday and grounding more than 180 flights on Tuesday. Temperatures in Southern Turkey dropped to a freezing cold minus 27° Celsius during the week and meteorologists forecast uninterrupted snowfall until February 7, practically paralyzing the European side of Istanbul.

Tourism figures for Turkey are however looking rather positive despite the winter weather. According to official data, over 8 million people visited Istanbul in 2011, which generated revenue of close to $25 million.  This is an increase of $6.9 million or 16% when compared to 2010. Currently the tourism industry accounts for an 11% contribution towards the nation’s economic growth.

In 2011, the majority of the foreign tourists visiting Istanbul were made up of German travellers, followed by travellers from Russia, the United States, Italy and France the Daily News reported.  While Hurryet reported that over 10 million foreign tourists travelled to Antalya as part of mass tourism.  During a conference being held in Ankara last week, the Culture and Tourism Minister, Ertugrul Günay said that the large hotels and holiday villages were cutting the tourists off from the local population and should now turn towards a new kind of tourism, which could capitalize on the attractions of smaller places across Anatolia.

The Minister also highlighted environmental protection concerns and he emphasised that more hotels in Turkey were in a position to receive the “green star” rating from the ministry this year.  In 2009 the “Green Star” certification, based on a number of environmentally conscious procedures, was introduced and is awarded to hotels that are eco-friendly.  Plus, with 325 “Blue Flag” beaches, Turkey has the third highest number in Europe. Günay added that the country should shift its focus away from continuing to invest in large-scale facilities and rather focus on smaller boutique enterprises.

Later this year, the market leader for small and independent hotels OZBI, the Association of Historical Hotels of Turkey, will be expanding to Anatolia. The group is an official association which represents a collection of hotels in Turkey that have distinct features. All of the hotels belonging to the association are owned and managed independently.  The President of OZBI, Hasan Gülkaynak said that the OZBI hotels are usually small hotels, which offer guests a more personal and intimate feeling and is the only official organization that represents this new tourist trend in Turkey.

Last month at the DLD Conference in Munich the Minister for European Union Affairs & Chief Negotiator, Egeman Bagis said that Turkey’s approach towards the Internet has a short history and started very late considering when the Internet boom happened in other countries. In 2003, there were only 23,000 web users and only a happy few could afford and enjoy the Internet, due to the lack of coverage.  In the meantime this has changed to over 23 million Internet aficionados, with one-third of them being Facebook users.