#Tourism Panel

Antalya Aquarium's target for 2023 is 16 million tourists

İsmail Arık, General Manager of Antalya Aquarium, the world's largest tunnel aquarium, said that 16 million tourists are targeted until the end of 2023 in Antalya, one of the world's most important tourism destinations. İsmail Arık, General Manager of Antalya Aquarium, who spoke at the panel titled 'Burada Turizm Çok' organized by Tourism Journal, which brings together the tourism industry, stated that they are preparing to host 900 thousand guests in 2023. Providing information about Antalya Aquarium, General Manager Arık said, “We are located in Antalya city center on the Konyaaltı beach, 70 meters from the sea. Due to its location, we are located in one of the easiest points of the city to be reached by public transportation vehicles. Antalya Aquarium has the “worl d's largest aquarium tunnel”. It is an environment where you can watch sea creatures on 3 sides for 131 m in the rare aquarium tunnel, where five people can easily walk side by side with a net diameter of 3 meters. Our main tank, where our tunnel is located, is 1500 square meters, containing 5.8 million liters of water, and it is a very natural environment for the living things inside. 250 SPECIES LIVE TOGETHER Informing that they host more than 10 thousand aquatic creatures of 250 different species, İsmail Arık said, “Our name is Antalya Aquarium, but we are not a business consisting only of aquariums. With our 3 floors and 12 thousand 500 square meters indoor area on our 30 thousand square meter land, restaurants, cafeterias, a wax museum, 1200 square meters WildPark reptiles area, our snow world with 850 square meters under half a meter of snow at -5 degrees even in the heat of Antalya and our 7-dimensional cinema, we are an entertainment and recreation location where a full day can be spent”. WE ARE TARGETING 900 THOUSAND GUESTS THIS YEAR Stating that they hosted 800 thousand paying guests in 2022 and that they will increase this figure to 900 thousand in 2023, İsmail Arık said, “In 2022, 13 million 508 thousand tourists from 186 countries landed at Antalya international terminals. We are very pleased with the interest of our citizens in the country. One third of our guests consist of our country people from Antalya and our citizens who spent their holidays in Antalya. If you ask the year 2023; Tourism is a target setting and planning industry, our tour operators and travel agencies set targets for the next year, make hotel plans, create tour packages and prepare their promotions, and make vehicle and personnel agreements such as planes, buses, minibuses, etc. Arık continued his words as follows: “We are fed by the planning made by these brave teams. When we compiled the interviews we made one by one during these planning studies that started in October, November 2022, we reached 16 million foreign guests for 2023. Over time, we have heard studies and statements confirming this figure. Antalya Tourism knows how to set realistic goals and has the enthusiasm to realize the goals it has set. Although the war in Russia and the earthquake disaster in 2023 caused a pause, the target of 16 million and more tourists in 2023 is a realistic target for Antalya. As Antalya Aquarium, we plan that 900 thousand paid guests will fall to our share from these numbers.”