TOURISM RECOVERY TO BOOST INTEREST IN UNIQUE TRAVEL
Tourism recovery to boost interest in unique travel Tourism activities must be inclusive to ensure their resumption in the post-pandemic period is sustainable, says the UNWTO head People sit on the shore of the Bosphorus, with the Hagia Sophia Mosque in the background, thear the Karakoy port in Istanbul on Sept 25. s tourism is bouncing back after being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, unique and authentic travel experiences, such as cultural and gastronomy tourism, are becoming more popular, the secretary-general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has said. "Tourism is resilient and will bounce back," Zurab Pololikashvili told Anadolu Agency, pointing out that the desire to travel has not faded and that the sector has led the way in adapting to the unprecedented challenge posed by the virus outbreak. Tourism has suffered significantly since the onset of the pandemic which led to worldwide travel restrictions and border shutdowns. International tourism and its closely linked sectors suffered an estimated loss of $2.4 trillion in 2020, a report jointly presented by the UNWTO and UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) showed. The UNWTO expects prepandemic trends in tourism to continue and even accelerate, said Pololikashvili, adding: "This includes stronger interest in unique and authentic travel experiences, for instance, cultural tourism, gastronomy tourism and wine tourism." "We expect the movement towards greater inclusivity and sustainability - both are core principles of UNWTO - will continue as we restart tourism and guide our sector's recovery," Pololikashvili added. According to the latest UNWTO data, international tourist arrivals slipped 85 percent compared to 2019 levels - a drop of 65 percent from 2020 - in January-May. Oya Narin, the head of the Turkish Tourism Investors Association (TTYD), said the momentum in the country's tourism sector would continue to improve in 2022 and 2023 with vaccination becoming more widespread to curb the spread of COVID-19. "The sector will overtake the 2019 levels by 2023-24," Narin said. As the world's sixth most popular destination in 2019, Turkey hosted more than 52 million visitors compared to other countries that year, including some 7 million Turks living abroad. Turkey raked in nearly $35 billion in tourism revenues in 2019. The interest in touristic cities, especially Istanbul, Turkey's largest city by population and a top tourist destination, will increase in the normalization period, she underlined. In subsequent years, the city will witness the opening of various museums that will make Istanbul a leader in bringing developments in arts and culture infrastructure to the world, she stressed. "We believe that similar promotional activities will greatly benefit the extension of the tourism season," Narin noted, adding that competition in international tourism is expected to be very sharp during recovery. Turkey's tourism revenues may surpass $100 billion by 2033 if the transformation in tourism becomes a government policy, Narin underlined. Due to pandemic-related travel restrictions last year, the number of foreign tourists dropped 69 percent to around 16 million, while tourism revenues declined to $12 billion. Turkey's tourism income stood at $2.4 billion in the first quarter of this year. In the second quarter, tourism revenues hit $3 billion.
