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447 thousand people visited Cappadocia in May

In May, 447 thousand 894 domestic and foreign tourists visited the museums and ruins in the Cappadocia Region, one of Turkey's most important tourism centers. The Cappadocia region, known as Turkey's 'land of beautiful horses', one of the famous tourism centers with its fairy chimneys and uniquely beautiful valleys, hot air balloons and underground cities, continues to welcome its visitors. In the Cappadocia region, 447 thousand 894 people visited historical sites such as Zelve ruins, Göreme Open Air Museum, Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu underground city, Açıksaray ruins, Dark Church, El Nazar church in April. While 112 thousand 42 people visited Zelve ruins, 106 thousand 976 people visited Göreme Open Air Museum. 58 thousand 545 people visited Kaymaklı underground city, 37 thousand 310 domestic and foreign tourists visited Derinkuyu underground city. In the same period of 2022, 477 thousand 757 people visited the museums and ruins in the Cappadocia region. Yakup Dinler, Secretary General of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation, said, “Cappadocia is the apple of the eye of both the world and Turkey." There is no such region other than Cappadocia. We have to live this popularity to the fullest. In January 2023, we started the year well with double-digit growth. In fact, it was a good year for the year 2022, which was closed with these records. But later on, we were also affected by the painful events that took place in our country. In February and March, our region did business with very serious negative numbers in terms of tourism. With the month of April, the activity started again and we achieved a very good figure in May. In May, approximately 450 thousand people visited museums and ruins. Of course, this gives us good predictions for June, July, August and beyond. I believe that we will complete the year 2023, the 100th anniversary of our republic, as a good year.” Dinler said, “The first market we lost with the pandemic was the Far East market, the Chinese and Japanese markets. It is not possible to say that there is a recovery in these markets yet. Flight numbers are still very low in frequency. But according to the information I have received from Turkish Airlines and other Middle Eastern airlines, the number of frequencies is increasing gradually and the demand is high. I hope that after the second half of 2023, we will return to our old days in the number of Far East, and I believe that Cappadocia will make a very serious contribution to the record number of accommodation."

Pandemic rules are removed, hotels are returning to their old days

The safe tourism certification brought to tourism facilities due to Kovid-19 has ended and tourism facilities have begun to return to their old days. Following the spread of the Kovid-19 virus in Turkey, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism mandated safe tourism certification to hotels in 2020. It obliged hotels to comply with certain criteria such as masks, distance and hygiene rules for domestic and foreign tourists. Open buffets were turned into closed buffets, table and chair distances, hygiene sprays and many similar rules were put into effect. The previous day, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism informed tourism professionals that the safe tourism certification program has ended. Tourism facilities began to return to their old days. Making statements on the subject, Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TÜROFED) Board Member Bodrum Hoteliers Association (BODER) President Ömer Faruk Dengiz heralded the removal of safe tourism certification to tourism professionals and said, “During the pandemic, the 'safe tourism' certification program was put into practice by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This program was actually a program for the health of tourism workers and guests coming to tourism facilities. After a long break, with the new normalization in the pandemic process, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has removed the 'safe tourism' certification. In the safe tourism program, some rules such as the obligation to wear masks, not exceeding the capacity in closed areas, approach distance, table, chair distance, open buffet rules had to be followed. The program is now closed due to the normalization process. Our facilities will not be subject to the safe tourism certificate. Pay attention to the sustainable tourism certification Expressing that the sustainable tourism certification has come into effect, Chairman Dengiz said, “From now on, there is a program called sustainable tourism. Until 2030, there is an obligation to implement it in all hotels. It is a well-known program in the world. This program, which we call sustainable, is a certificate program that aims to be an environmentally friendly facility suitable for the region it is located in. We hope that those above a certain room capacity in the sustainable tourism certification program will be included in this program. In other words, hotels over 30 or 50 rooms can be subject to a sustainable hotel certificate. Referring to the rule of lifeguards at the beach facilities located next to each other, Mayor Dengiz said, “It is obligatory to have a lifeguard at the beach facilities affiliated to the Ministry. There are 10 facilities on the shore, each of which has to hire lifeguards. In addition, it is mandatory to have a lifeguard hut. There should be 10 side-by-side lifeguard huts. We are saying that this situation should be made easier. We hope that the authorities will give us justice on this issue."

Tourism season opens with problems

One of the sectors affected by the February 6 earthquakes was tourism. In the sector, where reservations were adversely affected until May, reservations are expected to increase in June. Mehmet İşler, President of the Aegean Touristic Enterprises and Accommodations (ETIK) Union and Vice President of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TÜROFED), said, “The problems continue with the pandemic that lasted for two years, followed by the Russia-Ukraine war, the earthquake that followed, and the effects of the same war today. While waiting for support to recover from these effects, we encountered Accommodation and NPL taxes. In other countries, accommodation tax is collected only on the overnight fee, that is, on the price of the bed sold, while in our country it is collected over all the services offered by the business. Our suggestion is that the accommodation tax be charged only on the overnight fee, as in other countries." Stating that approximately 46 billion dollars of income was obtained in the tourism sector only last year, İşler said, "Accommodation and NPL taxes should either be abolished or revised and the scope and rates of application should be rearranged."

#Turkish Hoteliers Federation

447 thousand people visited Cappadocia in May

Pandemic rules are removed, hotels are returning to their old days

Tourism season opens with problems