ITB Berlin News 2019 - Review Edition

40
A TOUR OF PLANET EARTH
EUROPE
Rovinj, Croatia
Mehmet Ersoy
Minister of culture and tourism, Turkey
Targeting 70 million
foreign travellers in 2023
Turkey’s Culture and
Tourism Minister Mehmet
Ersoy has announced at
ITB Berlin that 2023 should
see 70 million visitors, with
revenues topping €E62bn.
The Minister came to ITB
Berlin to highlight the
ambitions of the Turkish
government regarding
tourism. “Our target for 2023
is to host 70 million tourists
and to earn US$70bn. We
are working hard to achieve
that target,” the Minister
said, while also highlighting
that Germans were among
the most important inbound
visitors for the country.
Last year, from a total of 46
million, Russia generated
5.96 million arrivals (up
by 15.1%), followed by
Germany with 4.51 million
(up by 11.4%), Bulgaria with
2.39 million (up by 6%), the
UK with 2.25 million (up
by 5.7%) and Georgia with
2.07 million travellers (up by
5.2%).
Luring more tourists will
require further investment
by the government, not
only in infrastructure such
as new highways, airports
or ports, but also on the
“soft” side: “We have three
priorities: the sustainability
of our tourism; technology
and quality. We see the
necessity to increase the
quality of our service, as
it will help us to generate
more income for our
tourism sector,” explained
the minister, adding, “We
just signed an MoU with
the Ministry of Education
to improve training of our
students such as requiring
them to learn three different
languages. We will also
encourage hotels to give a
training to more students,”
added Mr Ersoy.
The Minister is also looking
to turn more areas in the
country into new tourism
destinations. “There is a
huge potential for history
and cultural tourism as
we continue to open more
archaeological sites. Only
10% of archaeology sites
are visited currently, and
we want to emphasise our
rich gastronomy culture,” he
explained.
A new promotional body
is soon to be founded,
WE HAVE THREE
PRIORITIES: THE
SUSTAINABILITY OF OUR
TOURISM; TECHNOLOGY
AND QUALITY.
gathering together
government institutions and
the private sector, with a
potential budget of €135m.
ANOTHER
RECORD-
BREAKING YEAR
FOR CROATIA
The European jewel of Croatia has been a
trending destination enjoying year-on-year
growth over the last few years, with just
under 20 million projected arrivals and over
106 million overnights in 2019, a 7% and 4%
growth respectively in comparison to 2018.
Foreign inbound tourists account for nearly
90% of all arrivals and overnights.
Croatia has a wide array of attractions,
including the real-life King’s Landing from the
globally successful TV series Game of Thrones.
The series was filmed in Dubrovnik, which has
been voted as the best cultural destination of
2019 by readers of the US tourism platform
AFAR. Zadar, meanwhile, has been included
on Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2019 Top
10 cities to visit list. Furthermore, Rijeka is
preparing to be the European Capital of
Culture in 2020.
In addition to all of this, Croatia offers
an abundance of high-quality private
accommodation, with new high-end hotels
opening on a yearly basis and a few 5* hotels
planned to be opened during 2019, with
one in Rovinj slated for this spring. Overall
investments in the tourism sector in 2018
equalled €940 million, while this year over
€1bn in investments are expected, with more
than €626 million coming from private sector
investments in hotels, camps, marinas and
private accommodation.
In 2018, Croatia basked in the celebrations
of the FIFA World Cup finals, taking home the
silver, with many of Croatia’s football greats
including Luka Modrić the stars of Croatia’s
promo video for the past year. Croatia also
earned silver statuettes in the Best European
Destination and Best European Tourism Board
categories, as well as a Bronze Award in the
Best Destination – Overall category at the
prestigious Travvy Awards, held in New York
City this past January. This recognition came
from the travel industry’s experts, voted by
travel agents throughout the USA
ITB BERLIN NEWS • Friday 15 th March 2019
www.itb-berlin-news.com