Moscow festival reflects hope for Turkey’s tourism sector
Russian tourists are returning to Turkey’s relatively warm climes as relations between the countries thaw.
In a sign of improving relations, Moscow will be hosting this year’s Turkey Festival, which runs June 16-18. The event is being organized by Turkish authorities, civil society organizations and businesspeople in cooperation with Moscow city authorities. The festival’s budget is pegged at $1.2 billion, and organizers hope more than 100,000 Russians will participate.
Many of the event’s organizers are tourism business associations and organizations.
“We want to present Russians with our history, culture, sights and our country,” festival coordinator Haluk Ozsevim told Al-Monitor. “We should keep in mind that Russian and Turkish peoples have been good friends for many years. And both miss each other.”
Relations between the countries have been tense since Turkey shot down a Russian jet in November 2015. Russia subsequently imposed sanctions that severely hurt Turkey’s trade and tourism sectors. The restrictions forbade sales of organized tours and charter flights to Turkey, and tourists who made their own arrangements had to pay twice as much as before. The number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey plummeted: In 2016, only 500,000 Russians came, compared with 3.3 million in 2015 and 4.1 million in 2014.
