Holy Ramadan comes to Turkey to attract plenty Arab tourists
Turkey, one of the countries with a great majority of muslim population (99 percent) has started to live through Ramadan – the holy month again, this year…
Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar and lasts 29 or 30 days. The word Ramadan comes from the Arabic root “ramida” or “ar-ramad,” meaning scorching heat or dryness. In this holy month a devoted muslim fulfils his/her duty of fasting and refrains from eating, drinking, and sexual relations, from dawn until sunset. In Islam religion the rewards of fasting in this month are many and muslims offer more prayers and do goodness to others in this holy month.
It is known that Turkey, with all it has to offer including touristic attractions has become a true spot of interest for millions from all over the world.. However, this has been more so for Arabs lately, as they feel more comfortable in a muslim country with quite similar traditions (food etc) as well…
Having seen this point, Turkish authorities to include Turkish Airlines have started some campaigns for visitors from the Arab world to increase the number of tourists coming to Turkey during the holy month of Ramadan. Seen from Turkey’s point of view this situation is considered to very favorable as it would contribute to the budget as incoming revenues.
When we look at statistics to check the feasibility of this situation we see that the number of Arab tourists who visited Istanbul rose 20 percent in 2011 compared to the Ramadan before last year. This figure was provided by the Istanbul Culture and Tourism Directorate.
Moreover, based on reports by concerned authority figures are expected to reach the same levels this year too. In Ramadan 2010 more than 50 thousand Arabs visited Istanbul and last year this number went up to 62 thousand during Ramadan.In the first half of 2011, more than 346 thousand visitors came to Istanbul and this year the number reached 593 thousand.
On the other hand it was declared by Director of Istanbul Culture and Tourism Directorate that in the first six months of 2012, Turkey received high number of tourists visiting Istanbul. During this period the number of tourists who visited Istanbul increased 71.2 percent compared to the same period of the year before. In said period, German, Russian, American, French, English and Iranian tourists visited Istanbul, most.
This increase is considered to be due to the activities carried out by authorities in order to overcome the slowing down during Ramadan… Such activities include events during the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency’s in 2010 and “Ramadan Istanbul” & ‘Ramadan in Istanbul’ in 2011 which have certainly managed to draw considerable attention.
21.07.2012
Editor, BTT
