Tourism and Environment Minister Fikri Ataoğlu reminded that the new type of coronavirus pandemic, which threatens the TRNC as well as the world, has resulted in the country struggling since March 2020 in terms of both health and economics.
Minister Ataoğlu pointed out that the most effective way to combat the new type of coronavirus pandemic is to stop the circulation, “The first step taken in our country, together with the world countries struggling with pandemic, was to stop the circulation. The main source of tourism is people moving around. Yet, the pandemic had the most serious impact on the tourism sectors,” he said.
“I think that the importance of the phrase ‘the locomotive of the TRNC Economy’, which was said for tourism before the pandemic, gained more importance in this process. The tourism sector, which has come to a halt with the pandemic, the economic difficulties it creates on the country’s economy, and especially how vital tourism is for the TRNC economy, is an indisputable fact,” Minister Ataoğlu said, adding that the tourism industry can overcome this extraordinary process and will change after the pandemic. He stated that they are working very seriously as the Ministry in order to create a tourism structure suitable for tourism movements.
Minister Ataoğlu emphasised that the country’s tourism is integrated with all its stakeholders and said, “From 5-star hotels to small-scale hostels, from tour guides to tourism agencies, from restaurants to entertainment venues that are an indispensable part of the tourism sector, from transportation to our businesses that carry out transportation activities, all of our stakeholder sectors have the same importance and value for us”.
Underlining that the work carried out is aimed at the whole of the tourism industry, Minister Ataoğlu said, “Nobody should have any doubts that we are working hard to overcome this extraordinary process together and to prepare for the future in a better way.”
Source (Turkish): TRNC Ministry of Tourism and Environment