Türkiye targets events & weddings

Türkiye Tourism organised a mega six-city India Roadshow in collaboration with TAAI, showcasing its latest products, exclusive destinations, and services to allure Indian visitors, with the aim to welcome over three lakh Indians by the end of 2024. Türkiye’s wedding and M!CE tourism planners are geared up to host Indian couples and corporates.

TT Bureau

Recently, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Republic of Türkiye and Türkiye Tourism and Promotion Agency organised a mega six-city India Roadshow in collaboration with the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), to foster business interactions between the Indian travel trade community and Türkiye Tourism officials. The event assembled 29 distinguished suppliers from Türkiye, including tour operators, hoteliers, and Indian restaurants, and unveiled the latest travel trends emerging in both countries. This roadshow spanned six prominent cities of India including New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad.

The roadshow witnessed an outstanding response from the travel trade fraternity in India, with the participation of over 1200 members from India’s Tourism Industry, renowned M!CE agents and travel brands including Thomas Cook, MakeMyTrip, SOTC, and FCM.

Experience Turkey

Highlighting the details of the roadshow, Onur Gözet, Deputy Director General of Promotion, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Republic of Türkiye, said, “We are promoting more than eight experiences in Türkiye along with M!CE tourism, health tourism, history and cultural tourism, and also many new destinations.”

Türkiye is focusing on India as it is one of the top emerging source markets for them. In 2019, Türkiye witnessed 230k Indian arrivals, and in 2022 provisional estimation records 270k Indian footfalls. Türkiye’s aim to escalate this number in 2024, with the target of 350k arrivals.

Türkiye Tourism is promoting the destination in India via digital and traditional channels as well in collaboration with tour operators. In 2023, Türkiye hosted more than 7,000 opinion leaders, influencers, and tourism professionals.

Concerning the question how prepared Turkish service providers are for Indian tourists, Gözet replied, “Hoteliers, food and beverage organisations, and travel agencies are all prepared to cater to Indian tourists. Türkiye has some Indian restaurants that serve delectable Indian cuisine, which could be one of the attractive features. In fact, our wedding and M!CE organisers are enthusiastically ready to host Indian couples and corporates respectively.

Sharing his opinion on Indian government’s campaign ‘I-Do’ to accelerate wedding tourism in India, he said, “At first glance, it seems like it could impact Türkiye’s inbound sales, but we should be concerned with the interests of people. Türkiye has great infrastructure, trained tourism professionals, pristine destinations, and hotels with avant-garde facilities, which is best in the Mediterranean area. So, we have our own entrenched and distinctive products that Indian couples may find exclusively in Türkiye. We are sure that this feature will entice more Indian couples to Turkey in the coming years.”

India-Turkey partnership

Highlighting the agenda of the roadshows in different cities, Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, said, “We are delighted to tie up with Türkiye once again. The collaborations between the two countries will encourage innovation and increase footfalls, creating stronger opportunities for both tourism and economic growth of India.”

Connectivity check

• Both IndiGo and Turkish Airlines operate 14 daily flights including flights from Delhi and Mumbai.
• Istanbul takes up 54% of the travel pie, Antalya 11% and Cappadocia contributes 9% of top destinations for Indian travellers.