Turkey on Monday hoped to revive its lucrative tourism sector, devastated by coronavirus travel restrictions, with few foreign tourists visiting in May.
SEE ALSO: NCF to Shut Down for 1 Month for Facility Maintenance
According to the Tourism Ministry, there is a decline of 99.3 per cent international arrivals in May compared to the same period in 2019.
“That’s 29,829 visits compared to more than 4 million in May 2019,“the ministry said.
The January-May period saw a drop of 66.35 per cent, year on year. Most were in January and February before travel bans were imposed to stem the spread of the virus.
Turkey has been trying to attract tourists again after it lifted domestic travel bans and eased international flight restrictions in June.
However, while it had been negotiating with several countries, Ankara also complained that the travel warnings put in place by some EU nations were a political move and not based on science.
Germany, which classified Turkey as a risky destination because of its coronavirus cases, had such a warning in place until Aug. 31.
Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy noted that recently, more than 5 million German tourists alone visited Turkey in 2019.
Turkey earned 34.5 billion dollars from tourism in 2019, when it welcomed more than 45 million visitors.
The number of coronavirus cases is currently more than 187,000, with 4,905 deaths since Turkey reported its first infection on March 11.