Traveling with Health Certificate: Turkish Tourism sets rules for visitors

The Tourism Minister of Turkey Mehmet Nuri Ersoy is ready to rebuild tourism to the country the first week of May. The key is a health certificate. The minister did not say how Turkey would convince other nations to recognize it.

Nepal had set such a trend already earlier in Marchย  but had to close the country after this and the Nepal Tourism Board rescued 1721 tourists after the early April closure.

Turkey is hoping to kick-start a return to tourism activity with a new โ€œcoronavirus-freeโ€ certification program for the industry that is drawing rare bipartisan support in a sector hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Ahmet Aras, mayor of the popular resort town of Bodrum and a member of the opposition Republican Peopleโ€™s Party (CHP), told The Media Line he believed the plan could benefit the country.

โ€œWe support [the] certificate program,โ€ Aras wrote in a message. โ€œTourists will prefer more hygienic destinations than othersโ€ฆ. After COVID-19, the concept of โ€˜normalโ€™ will change.โ€

Aras added that a commission had been set up in his city, which he said had 1.5 million foreign tourists last year, to prepare for changes.

Ersoy said the program included training for workers, plans for the sterilization of vehicles, hotels, airports and restaurants, and requirements for visitors to show health documents proving they do not have coronavirus. Businesses such as hotels would have to reorganize their interior and exterior spaces to allow for social distancing.

He expects the countryโ€™s tourism season to gradually begin after May.

โ€œAt the first stage, Iโ€™m expecting incoming [tourists] from the Asian countries,โ€ he stated, according to Hurriyet Daily News. โ€œIn the second stage, Germany and Austria will recover fast [from the pandemic].โ€

He added that Russian and British tourists would most likely be unable to come before the end of July.

However, there are questions about whether international tourism can exist at all in 2020. A top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that citizens should not plan foreign trips this year, Bloomberg reported.

Russia replaced Germany as the top source for visitors to Turkey after Ankara strengthened relations with Moscow amid a drift away from NATO allies.

The Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) wrote in an email to The Media Line that it expected domestic tourism to slowly restart by the end of June. If travel bans are lifted internationally, foreign visitors could begin arriving in July and August.

โ€œWhen assessed from an economic point of view, tourism stands as one of the primary sectors worldwide affected by the COVID-19 pandemicโ€ฆ. Tourism activity has come to a complete halt,โ€ TURSAB wrote.

Joseph Fischer, a Tel Aviv-based tourism consultant who advises businesses in Turkey, remains somewhat skeptical about a reboot in global tourism.

โ€œThatโ€™s the million-dollar question,โ€ he told The Media Line.

He believes international tourism will not begin until early 2021 and that countries need to focus on incentivizing their own citizens to travel domestically.

โ€œI think that tourism will start to pick up not because of [a] vaccine, but because of measurements and criteria put in place for safer travelโ€ฆ. As long as the skies are closed, there wonโ€™t be a change,โ€ Fischer said.

The tourism minister of Greece, which is also heavily dependent on the sector for income, said the country would be meeting with European Union officials in hopes of creating protocols to start the tourist season by July.

Fischer stressed that Turkey would have to abide by EU protocols to have a chance at welcoming European tourists to the country.

Another major blow for Turkeyโ€™s economy will be its airlines. The government has spent $12 billion on a massive new airport in Istanbul to turn the city into a leading regional hub. Fischer notes that Israelis are among Turkish Airlinesโ€™ top customers but says they would not be using Istanbulโ€™s airports without being โ€œa hundred percentโ€ sure it was safe to go.

Tourism is an important sector worldwide, accounting for over 10% of the global GDP and pumping $8.9 trillion into the world economy in 2019, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

In Turkey, the tourism sector accounts for about 12% of the GDP. The decline is especially painful as the country came out of recession in 2019 following a currency meltdown.

Fischer believes that the mostly EU countries in the so-called Schengen Zone, where Europeans can travel passport-free, would open up to one another before opening up to countries outside the zone. He calls it crucial for governments to find a way to get tourism going, not just for the economy, but to give people hope.

โ€œThe Turks, they love the people, they love the people that comeโ€ฆ they are so hospitable,โ€ he said.

โ€œItโ€™s part of the culture to open up for people from around the world. So if you take that away, you really put people under huge psychological pressure. They have to open up,โ€ he said. โ€œThey need it.โ€

By Kristina Jovanovski / The Media Line

About the author

Avatar of The Media Line

The Media Line

Share to...