Tourism Ministry is working on ways to boost flight operations between Turkey and India. K Chiranjeevi, Minister for Tourism, who met Burak Akcapar, Turkey ambassador to India, on Tuesday assured him of increasing flight operations between the two nations.
Akcaper also advocated more flight operations between the two countries as the existing flights, he said, were inadequate to cope with the demand. Akcapar said that the Turkish Airlines was planning to spread their network in India with the possible code sharing with Air India. The ambassador suggested that the Tourism Ministry and Turkish authorities could undertake joint promotion to increase two-way traffic between India and Turkey.
Turkey is an important inbound tourist source market for India as well. In 2011, a total number of 17,329 tourists from Turkey visited India and the number of visitors from India to Turkey was well over 70,000 last year.
“Indian tourists going to Turkey are really high and the figures are only increasing every year. We are also working on increasing the Turkish footfalls in our country. There are some road-shows planned to promote Indian tourism in Turkey this year,” said an official from the Tourism Ministry. Aiming at attracting more tourists from Turkey, the Tourism Ministry is planning to carry out special promotions in the Turkish market this year.
Earlier this year, Turkish tourism had also launched a pan India advertising campaign to reach out to Indian tourists by showcasing the enchanting and rich experiential offerings of Turkey, called ‘Million Reasons.’ The campaign included a 30 second TV advertisement supported by online, print and outdoor elements. The Bilateral Tourism Cooperation Agreement signed between India and Turkey in 1995 contains the provision for setting up a joint working group.