Last Saturday, Antalya welcomed its first tourists from Russia after a long break. 189 people were greeted like Olympic champions, with flowers and champagne.
This event was marked by a real sensation not only for representatives of the local tourism sector. The media in Antalya, as it turned out, were also expecting the first tourist group of Russians. For this occasion, they organized a live broadcast directly from the airport.
Let us recall that the first flight with Russian tourists was supposed to land in Turkey on July 7, but since the Cabinet of Ministers did not issue the corresponding decree, the charter did not take off from Pulkovo.
It is worth noting that the head of Rostourism last week said that the lifting of the ban on purchasing tour packages to the Turkish Republic does not mean approval from the Russian Federation, especially considering the massive demand of Russians. In addition, Oleg Safronov emphasized that Turkey is still a country with a high level of danger for foreign citizens due to the terrorist attacks that have been occurring in the country regularly for the past six months.
"The ban on cancellation of travel packages to Turkey has been lifted, but we still cannot be sure that the host country is able to provide the highest level of security for our citizens. Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we constantly inform Russians about current events in Turkey and draw their attention to the regularity of incidents. The latest tragedy occurred quite recently, at the end of June. On the other hand, we hope that attracting our tourists to the consumption of Turkish tourism products will be an additional incentive to increase the level of security at local resorts," the head of Rostourism said in a statement.
