Minister Evren pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected the world, has changed tourism organisations, and stated that the country should be prepared for this change, and that studies have been initiated in this direction by the Ministry.
Stating that the tourist mobility and tourism policies in the world have changed, “We have to organise the negativity especially in the tourism sector due to the pandemic according to the pandemic conditions and health criteria. For this, we shape our tourism policies with our relevant sectors according to the changing tourism mobility, by analysing the changing understanding of tourism and tourist mobility in the world and in our country due to the pandemic. “We have seen the change in tourism movement more clearly with the Eid al-Adha holiday,” he said.
Tourism and Environment Minister Kutlu Evren said in his statement that he evaluated the tourism movements during the 4-day Eid al-Adha, while the occupancy rates of 5-star hotels in the TRNC were around 30 percent during the feast, while the small-scale accommodation facilities in the countryside increased to 100 percent during the pandemic period. He stated that it is an important indicator that accommodation preferences have changed.
“The focus of domestic tourism has been small-scale hotels”
Tourism and Environment Minister Kutlu Evren stated that a controlled normalisation process has been initiated to prevent the spread of the new type of coronavirus, the number of flights in air transport has been gradually increased to 11 flights per day during the Eid al-Adha holiday.
Minister Evren stated that during the Eid al-Adha, approximately 5,000 tourists came to the TRNC by air, and that this figure was around 180,000 before the Covid-19 pandemic, when domestic tourism became active during the Bayram.
Minister Evren stated that approximately 6,000 TRNC citizens had a holiday in the country during the 4-day Eid al-Adha, and stated that the preferred regions for the holiday were small-scale hotels in the İskele-Karpaz region. Tourism and Environment Ministry, stated that according to data collected by the Tourism Planning Department during the Eid al-Adha holiday, Iskele in the Karpaz controlled the process of normalisation for hotels. Reminding of the prediction that during the Covid-19 pandemic process accommodation preferences would mostly change from city centres to rural areas, he stated that according to the World Tourism Organisation and Turkey Travel Agents Association there would be a turn from urban centres to rural areas where 100% occupancy would be achieved, and that the accommodation preferences in our country are for smaller scale tourism enterprises such as small hotels and bed/breakfast guest houses, indicating that they are in parallel with the accommodation preferences in the world.
Our hotels are at the point where they apply hygiene rules with precision.
Tourism and Environment Minister Kutlu Evren made evaluations about tourism accommodation facilities in the TRNC in his statement with regard to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism mobility. He underlined that it should be understood that the double PCR test criteria applied to the country is not only for the protection of the health of the citizens of the country, but also for the protection of those who will visit the TRNC in terms of health, and emphasised that the same sensitivity should be shown by the tourism accommodation facilities in the country in order to allow both the guests coming to the country and the citizens of the country to have a safe holiday.
“The most effective method in combating the Covid-19 pandemic is hygiene, social distance and the use of masks, as the World Health Organisation states at every opportunity. At this point, it is gratifying that the management and staff of our tourism accommodation facilities in our country show sensitivity to these important measures. Saying that the most obvious indication of this is that there was no serious contamination in our hotels, Minister Evren underlined that both foreign and national citizens can choose the hotels in our country with peace of mind.
Source (Turkish) Ministry of Tourism and Environment
