Azernews.Az

By News Center

The number of tourists visiting Turkiye's Mediterranean city of Antalya dubbed the "capital of tourism" reaches 11 million in 2022, Yeni Shafak reports, citing Governor Ersin Yazici.

“Tourism is everything to us. We carry the burden of being a province that generates around one-third of the country's tourism revenue. As of now, the airport has received 10.7 million international visitors,” Yazici told a press conference.

He emphasized that in contrast to 2020, when tourism dropped owing to the pandemic, all tourist-related industries are now ecstatic, thanks to the opportunities created by tourism mobility.

“We are having a good season with the movement brought by tourism. Hopefully, it will continue like this,” Yazici said.

In response to a question of whether there is a growth in the number of tourists following Russia's mobilization, Yazici stated that no discernible alterations have been observed so far.

“For a long time, the daily number of Russian tourists has been 16,000-19,000. While the difference in incoming and outgoing traffic is only a few hundred people, 1,000-1,800 in the previous few days is not a large quantity. This suggests that very few individuals extended their stay. We'll keep an eye on it and see if anything unusual happens. There is no problem if the visitors remain at the hotel; it will work for us as well if they stay for 30 days rather than 15 days” the governor stressed.

Underlining Antalya’s agricultural importance, he said: "We witnessed the truth during the pandemic: without agriculture, the rest is a falsehood. In Antalya, a city of agriculture, tourism, and trade, I see farmers, who are content with their businesses. Undercover gardening has begun as the season kicked off and during this period, we will continue to export products to many countries across the world”.

Moreover, Yazici said that the Targeted Education Qualification Project in Antalya (AHENK) aims to reach out to young people.

“We will thank everyone who contributed to this initiative when the findings are published in 4-5 years. The citizens of this lovely city must likewise set a positive example. We will not give up our tenacity and persistence in reading books. We are trying to measure what we do. We climbed from 1.77 books read per kid to 3.57 at the end of May. The annual average number of books read is 2.80 and this will be increased further. In our classrooms, we have significantly expanded the number of books. There are presently over 3.2 million books in schools, compared to 834,743 books in previous years,” Yazici detailed.

Governor Yazici stated that the number of temporary residency permits for foreigners grew 3-5 times last year with Russians, Ukrainians, the Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, and Iranians being among the top five nations.

Even if visitors fit the requirements for getting residency permits in specific districts, they are not registered in the restricted districts because of Syrians, he underlined.

The number of temporary residence permits issued in 2020 was 87,889, while the current figure is 177,796. Syrians are not provided with temporary residence. Some 50,340 Russians, 22,673 Kazakhs, 18,495 Ukrainians, 11,500 Kyrgyz, and 11,300 Iranians received temporary residence permits. Currently, there are 3,800 Syrians with residence permits in Antalya, he added.

"They are working in the city," the governor added, pointing to the fact that many Syrians are registered in Burdur and Isparta since they are not granted residency in Antalya.

Yazici further stated that the city has 19,522 international students, including 7,116 Syrians, 3,215 Russians, 2,381 Kazakhs, 1,193 Iranians, and 800 Iraqis.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz