Istanbul, Sep 20 (Bureau) Britain’s removal of Turkey from the COVID-19 travel red list would promote tourism in the upcoming winter season, local media on Monday quoted Turkish tourism sector representatives as saying. The British government decided that starting from September 22, arrivals from Turkey, which had been on the travel red list since May, would no longer need quarantine in hotels. Sururi Corabatir, head of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TUROFED), said British tourists are an important target group to be influenced by Turkey’s golf courses, according to the Hurriyet daily.
He told the press that the Antalya province in the Mediterranean region filled with many golf courses would start to host British travelers after Turkey’s removal from the red list on Wednesday. The Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) anticipated that the number of British citizens bound for Turkey in the next three months will be around 200,000. Tourism insiders are also hopeful about the summer season in 2022, expecting that Turkey would lure more British tourists. Some 2.5 million British people vacationed in Turkey in 2019, who mainly preferred the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts, according to the TUROFED. After receiving 45 million tourists in 2019 and generating a total of 34.5 billion dollars in revenue, Turkey suffered over 70 percent losses in 2020 due to the pandemic.