TRNC's target is more than 2 million tourists

Fikri Ataoğlu, Deputy Prime Minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Minister of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Environment, answered the questions of the AA correspondent at the International Tourism Exchange (ITB) Fair held in Berlin, the capital of Germany.

Explaining that they participated in the ITB Fair again 3 years after the Covid-19 epidemic, Ataoğlu stated that they wanted to show the historical richness, natural beauties and the existence of many alternative tourism models in the TRNC. Expressing that they have overcome the Covid-19 period positively in the field of tourism in the TRNC, Ataoğlu said that they reached the number of tourists in 2019 in 2022.

Ataoğlu said, "But our main goal in 2023 is to bring more tourists to the country than in 2019 and 2022 and to exceed 2 million if nothing goes wrong again and everything continues as we want."

Enrichment of alternative tourism models

Ataoğlu stated that the hotels in the TRNC can compete with the existing hotels in the world and that they aim to enrich alternative tourism models in the country. Emphasizing that the hotels in the TRNC are very luxurious, Ataoğlu said, “We always talk proudly that we are in a position to compete with the world. We started to work to increase this even more. We continue to work to enrich alternative tourism models.”

Expressing that they aim to increase the number of tourists with the opening of the new airport in a few months, Ataoğlu stated that in recent days, Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism and various channels of Germany, Russia, England and Turkey have been working on advertisements promoting the TRNC, and that they have received serious feedback.

Emphasizing that many German tourists come to the TRNC, Ataoğlu said, “This is what we always say; You can see and get to know the TRNC not by telling but by living it.

Tourism in TRNC is sustainable

Minister Ataoğlu stated that they are assertive in the field of tourism and they do whatever needs to be done for this and continued as follows: "The new airport? Yes, we are doing it, it is almost finished. New alternative tourism models? Yes, they will also take action in the coming days. When we say alternative tourism models, we mean that hotels on the one hand, health tourism on the one hand, golf courses, sports tourism, football on the one hand. "Our intention is to build the infrastructure of many similar events, where the dynamic sector can come, and to bring them (tourists) to our country after this infrastructure (works) after that. We continue our work. It is very productive."

Pointing out that those who come to TRNC as tourists have started to buy housing, Ataoğlu said, “Now, tourism is at a sustainable level for us. Because Northern Cyprus is very little affected by all the negativities, the negativities that the world and some countries have gone through. If this is the case and if it is a safe country, then everyone should come to the TRNC. This is already happening.”

Ataoğlu concluded his words as follows:

"In our country, we started to bring these tourists on time out here, and then when we increased the 1-week stay to 2 weeks, it gave birth to different things. What things? To the tourists who came there to own housing there. Many foreign tourists started to buy housing when they came to the country. Of course, it is important to buy housing. Now they become permanent tourists there. When you buy a house, when your house is empty there, you rent that house to your acquaintances, your spouse, your friend, your friends. Therefore, that house of yours is also included in the tourism sector. These are also in a predominant position at the moment."