Tuesday, August 11, 2020
On Tuesday, the German government said that the country has lifted a warning against traveling to the four seaside provinces in Turkey with low rates of coronavirus infection as part of a recent pact to perk up tourism between the two countries.
The German foreign ministry mentioned that it was slowly raising the warnings against traveling to Antalya, Izmir, Muğla and Aydın on the Mediterranean regions in Turkey, where the prevalence of coronavirus stood at only five new infections per 100,000 in the course of one week.
“Turkey has developed a special concept of tourism and hygiene for these four regions in order to allow for safe tourism in line with the pandemic conditions,” government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said in Berlin.
Also, Turkey would need all travelers leaving for Germany to produce a negative report of coronavirus test taken within 48 hours before exiting, the ministry’s statement has further added.
In June, the German government had come to a decision to drop its global travel warning only for EU member states and Schengen-associated countries like Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. However, they extended it for all other countries, including Turkey, until the end of August.
The EU on the other hand, in a list published in June, decided to keep out Turkey, along with the U.S. and other countries, from a list of countries recommended for leisure travel.
Ankara said that the decisions as unsatisfactory and had called on Germany and the bloc for a reversal, explaining that the steps taken to fight COVID as well as its efforts and successes. 3 million of Germany’s 80 million inhabitants have a Turkish ethnic background, as the country has historically been among the most preferred destination to travel for the German nationals.
For Germans on 2019, Turkey was the second most popular tourist destination after Spain, as per German Travel Association DRV. Almost 5 million German tourists traveled to Turkey last year.
“One of Germans’ favorite tourist destinations is partially open again,” said DRV president Norbert Fiebig. “Good news not just for holidaymakers but also for the travel business.”
Tags: germany
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