Over the past two decades, T\u00fcrkiye has witnessed a remarkable transformation across various sectors, including education, health care, transportation, infrastructure, defense and tourism. Through massive investments in all areas, the obstacles preventing T\u00fcrkiye from standing out as a strong nation in its region and on the global stage have been systematically removed. Tourism has become a significant driving force within this transformation. Particularly after 2018, the integration of culture and tourism, combined with leveraging the country\u2019s vast resources to enhance tourism capacity, has established a sustainable dynamism that continues to grow. Today, tourism ranks among the leading export sectors of the country.<\/p>\n
The recent success achieved in tourism is not a coincidence. On the contrary, it is the outcome of a series of strategic measures ranging from promotion campaigns to improving the quality of tourism destinations, from developing cultural tourism to advancing gastronomy tourism. As a result of these strategic initiatives, T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s tourism revenues have reached a stage of resilience and sustainability, even in the face of crises. In this article, I will briefly highlight these strategic steps and explore the background of this success story.<\/p>\n
Comprehensive promotion<\/strong><\/p>\n Within this framework, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism took its first major step by establishing the T\u00fcrkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA). Through TGA, an extensive and impactful promotional campaign was launched. Under its umbrella, the government and sector stakeholders joined forces to showcase T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s tourism potential across more than 200 countries. At the same time, efforts were focused on creating diversity in target markets.<\/p>\n Every destination served by Turkish Airlines (THY) was designated as a potential target market. Through a combination of TGA\u2019s marketing activities, collaborations with both traditional and online tour operators and joint advertising campaigns carried out alongside THY and other airlines to ensure supply security, the number and variety of high-demand markets expanded significantly.<\/p>\n These efforts began yielding results in a short time. In 2017, T\u00fcrkiye welcomed 37,969,824 visitors, but just one year later, in 2018, this figure surged by nearly 9 million, reaching 46,112,592. As more strategic initiatives were implemented in subsequent years, this upward trend continued, culminating in a record in 2024, when the number of visitors reached an impressive 62,269,890.<\/p>\n Increasing diversity in supply<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course, these significant increases could not have been achieved solely through effective and comprehensive promotion. In this context, one of the most important transformations has been the diversification of tourism supply. Until 2018, T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s tourism products were mainly limited to sea, sand and sun, but since then, the portfolio has expanded to include more than 60 different offerings such as gastronomy, nature tourism, cruises, cycling, sports, faith-based routes, adventure tourism, blue voyages, archaeology, cultural tours, health tourism, train journeys and festivals. With such a rich and diversified portfolio, the duration of tourism activity also expanded. As a result, the tourism season has now extended to 12 months and is spreading across all 81 provinces of the country.<\/p>\n For example, although the motivation to experience new flavors holds an important place in tourism activities and Turkish cuisine already enjoys an internationally recognized and highly acclaimed gastronomic tradition, this potential had not been fully utilized until recently. With the recent strategic shift, gastronomy has been brought to the forefront in promotional campaigns and has now secured its position as a strong alternative for T\u00fcrkiye in the tourism sector. To reach this point, steps were taken to establish a \u201cgastrocity\u201d identity for T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s major tourism destinations. These efforts quickly began to bear fruit. First, Istanbul was included in the world\u2019s most prestigious selection in its field, the Michelin Guide, followed by Izmir, Bodrum, and Mu\u011fla. Most recently, Cappadocia also earned its place on the list.<\/p>\n