Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Turkey recently announced that it is planning to welcome UK travellers this summer as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions permit international travel from the UK. Officials in the country informed that all necessary steps have been undertaken to ensure that travel continues to be safe. Turkey has already announced a priority vaccination program for employees at hotels and other tourist facilities for the upcoming tourism season. Nearly 2.5 million British tourists visited Turkey in 2019, with visitors staying in popular areas including Istanbul, Bodrum, Dalaman and Izmir. Airlines flying from the UK include Turkish Airlines, British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Tui, Sun Express and Ryanair.
All hotels certified under the Safe Tourism programme will provide testing facilities for tourists so they can obtain test results, if needed, before departing Turkey for the UK or elsewhere. Tests will also be carried out at international airports in Turkey. In addition, tourists visiting Turkey are being offered a special insurance package, which covers COVID-19 related expenses such as treatment, medication and emergency care costs that may be incurred if visitors are taken to a state-owned or private pandemic hospital during their stay in Turkey.
Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Turkey said in a statement that everyone is looking forward to welcoming British tourists with open arms, as they did safely last summer. He informed that the country has world-class border processes in place for ensuring travel will be low-risk throughout Turkey and authorities are also working with the British authorities to ensure that the necessary processes are world-class and as up-to-date as possible. He informed that Turkey will also not require vaccination passports from international travellers when entering the country.
He shared that number of COVID-19 cases will be tallied after April 15, the situation will be re-evaluated the decision would be taken if the country will continue to require negative PCR test results from British citizens after arrival. He said that he expected that there will be no such requirement from British visitors as the UK government is rapidly, and impressively, rolling out the vaccination program for the whole nation and a significant portion of the population will be vaccinated by early summer.
He continued that to ensure visitors can enjoy a safe and healthy holiday at all stages of their trip, the country will continue to invest in the Safe Tourism programme launched in 2020. He also mentioned that the scope has been expanded this year and it is now compulsory for hotels and other accommodation facilities with 30 rooms or more with more than 8,000 facilities certified so far.
Tags: Covid-19, Turkey, Turkey Tourism, U.K.
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
