Swedes have surging interest in Turkey, says embassy official
Tourism and Cultural Attache Filiz Köse at the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm says there has been a consistent increase in the number of tourists visiting Turkey. The number of Swedish tourists visiting Turkey increased by 11.33 percent in 2010 and the embassy official says they expect an additional increase in 2011 particularly due to tourists cancelling their tour programs in turmoil-stricken Egypt and Tunisia
Among Swedish people’s favorite destinations in Turkey are Istanbul, Çeşme, Kuşadası, Foça, Seferihisar, Bodrum, Marmaris, Sarıgerme and Cappadocia. Hürriyet photo
The number of Swedish tourists visiting Turkey increased by 11.33 percent in 2010, according to diplomatic figures. Tourism and Cultural Attache Filiz Köse at the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm said they expected an additional increase in 2011 particularly due to tourists canceling their tour programs in turmoil-stricken Egypt and Tunisia.
Speaking to Anatolia news agency, Köse said there had been a consistent increase in the number of tourists visiting Turkey, with the exception of 2009, when the numbers fell by 0.58 percent due to the global recession.
More than 400,000 people visited Turkey from Sweden in 2009, and the number reached 447,000 in 2010, according to Köse.
"The [travel] market is largely dominated by early bookings. As the political upheaval in Egypt and Tunisia limited the tourist flow to these countries almost to the point of a halt, tourists planning and booking visits to these countries had to cancel their early bookings. Some of them changed their destinations to the Canary Islands due to the climatic conditions, but some of them changed to Turkey due to our golf tourism. Some of the consumers who canceled their bookings have rebooked for package tours to Turkey. Relying on that, we are expecting a similar growth in the 2011 market to that of 2010.”
Turkey among leading destinations
According to Köse, Turkey is in vogue among Swedes as a travel destination. She said Turkey shared leadership in the reception of vacation visits with Spain and Greece, Turkey’s two rivals in the Mediterranean basin.
“Turkey became the second most visited tourism destination in the basin in 2008, after Spain. We spoke with the Swedish tour operators and learned from them that while the tourist flow to Spain and Greece was severely disrupted or slashed in 2009 and 2010, the number of visits to Turkey rose drastically. Given that, we may well consider that Turkey has closed 2010 as the lead country in terms of the increase in visitor volume in the Mediterranean basin when compared to our two competitors, Spain and Greece,” she said.
Köse told Anatolia that the Swedes took vacations three to five times a year and their priorities for the vacation was beach and sun; however, she added, in the last few years they have shown a greater interest in discovering cultural and historical wealth, thermal spa tourism and adventure tourism.
Köse said Swedes’ favorite destinations in Turkey were Istanbul, Çeşme, Kuşadası, Foça, Seferihisar, Bodrum, Marmaris, Sarıgerme and Cappadocia.
Turkish Airlines, Anadolujet, Sun Express and Pegasus Airlines have a total of 31 flights from Sweden to Turkey a week, and Turkish Airlines plans to increase its scheduled flights in 2011. Tuesday, February 22, 2011
STOCKHOLM – Anatolia News Agency
