For ProntoTour General Director Ali Onaran, the current tableau is the result of the economic improvements achieved in the last eight years. This situation became more visible after Europe was unable to recover from the crisis. As one of the ways to make their crisis exit strategies more effective, EU countries are seeking to appeal to more Turkish tourists, who spend more generously than their northwest European counterparts.
“Around 6 million tourists opt to vacation abroad every year. These are mostly people with high incomes. For example, in Germany 60 million people travel abroad on vacation each year, but this number includes students and newly employed graduates. This is why the Turks’ expenditures are much higher than that of Europeans, on average,” he said in an interview with Today’s Zaman.
With European travel agencies putting together various promotions to attract more tourists from Turkey, the heads of domestic travel agencies say Turkey has become “a ray of hope” for European countries’ plans to get out of the economic crisis. Turkish Association of Travel Agents (TÜRSAB) President Başaran Ulusoy told Today’s Zaman that Turkey has become “a center of attraction” both with its domestic destinations and its peoples’ spending power.
