TESK President Bendevi Palandöken stated that the 'all-inclusive' system should be abandoned in order to increase tourism income in Turkey.
In his written statement, Palandöken stated that tourism in Turkey should be extended not only to the summer months, but also to other areas such as health, culture and gastronomy with higher foreign exchange earnings.
He pointed out that there has been a decrease in the average per capita expenditure of foreign tourists in dollar terms.
Tourists spend less
Palandöken said: "Although the number of tourists increased, a tourist who spent 1,28 dollars in 2021 spent 901 dollars last year. The most important reason for this decrease in per capita expenditures is that tourists stick to a fixed point such as a hotel and do not travel enough. Here, tourism agencies have a big responsibility.
'Gastronomy diversity should be used'
Stating that the all-inclusive system is a major obstacle to the development of gastronomic tourism, Palandöken said, "Now, tourists want to experience not only the historical and natural beauties of the countries they travel to, but also the taste. Each region has a different flavor in Turkish cuisine. Tourists going to the Black Sea and tourists going to the Southeast have the chance to taste very different flavors. We can give a new impetus to tourism by using this diversity very well." made its assessment.
Palandoken stated that 876 thousand 521 people came to the country last year for health tourism, and 1 billion 600 million dollars of foreign exchange income was obtained from these visits.
Emphasizing that tourists coming to Turkey for all kinds of operations such as hair transplantation, cataract surgery, dental operations, rheumatism treatments, cupping and leech treatments leave at least twice as much foreign currency as the others, Palandöken said, "Our natural assets such as our thermal springs, healing waters, plateaus, mountain air, forest areas should be evaluated more through health tourism." used the phrase.
