Türkiye has seen record-breaking numbers of visitors from Ireland thus far in 2023. As of September 2023, over 134,000 Irish tourists had visited Türkiye – a 21% increase on the same nine-month period in 2022.
The latest figures, which have just been released by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, also represent a 65% increase against the pre-pandemic figures for the same nine-month period in 2019 – marking an impressive milestone for travel from Ireland to Türkiye.
The release of these figures follows the recent ITAA (Irish Travel Agents Association) Conference, which took place in Antalya in Türkiye from October 17th – 22nd. SunExpress announced earlier this year that they would be increasing their flights from Ireland to Türkiye in 2024, with seven flights per week from Dublin to Izmir, and three flights a week to Antalya.
This news comes as the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism announces that over 1,000,000 beds in Turkish hotels have received sustainable tourism verifications and certificates, as part of Türkiye’s National Sustainability Tourism Program. The Turkish government was the first to partner with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council to develop and sign on to such a Program at a national level.
Türkiye is one of the few countries that has ‘must have’ approach to sustainable tourism, with the certification of accommodation facilities mandated by law. Looking at the progress of the National Sustainable Tourism Program in Türkiye’s four largest tourism regions, 1,144 accommodation facilities have been verified/certified in Antalya, 966 in İstanbul, 639 in Muğla, and 488 in İzmir.
For more details about Türkiye and its National Sustainable Tourism Programme: https://goturkiye.com/ and https://goturkiye.com/sustainability
