Foreign Minister says Turkey’s German and Russian friends want to come on holiday

Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu is reported to have made promising remarks about the tourism sector which has hit rock bottom due to the corona virus outbreak. The Minister said, “Our German and Russian friends want to come to Turkey. We want to welcome tourists who want to come on charter flights safely even if scheduled flights don’t start”.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu was hosted by a local TV channel in Alanya. Cavusoglu pointed out that tourism sector which incurred a negative impact due to the outbreak was not important for Alanya only, but it was a main source of revenue for Turkey as well.

The Minister also said the following: “We will try to pass this year with little damage. After that, we will proceed towards our targets with confident steps. We know that our German, Russian friends want to come to Turkey. Turkey comes to the fore when they compare us with the level of cases and other figures and health capacities in other alternative countries regarding the pandemic. That’s why they want to come. And if they want to come, we have to work together”.

The Minister added that Turkey needed to make it possible for those people to come to Turkey and take a holiday together and that each country would decide on international flights within the framework of the measures taken to deal with the pandemic and said,

“However, even if scheduled flights do not start, we want to make sure that the tourists who want to come to Turkey from those countries have their holiday safely and send them home again. We are trying to convince the authorities of those countries with the work we are doing and will do regarding this issue.  We started to invite delegations in those countries to Turkey. We invited tour companies, operators and guides to see the measures we took from the airport to the hotel. The official papers are sent by our minister”. (SÖZCÜ)