China declares 2018 ‘Turkey Tourism Year’

China has declared 2018 as its “Turkey Tourism Year,” in a move expected to boost ties between the two countries, Chinese Ambassador to Ankara Yu Hongyang said on Dec. 16. 

“China has declared 2018 as the ‘Turkish Tourism Year’ in China. This will increase the friendship between the two countries,” Hongyang said at an event hosted by the Turkish Business and Industry Association (TÜSİAD) in Istanbul. 

He added that relations between the two countries have entered a period of “maturity and stability,” which gave fresh development opportunities.

TÜSİAD head Cansen Başaran-Symes also underlined the importance of tourism relations between the two countries. 

“China has become the country that sent the most tourists abroad with 120 million people in 2015. The number of tourists going abroad in the next five years is estimated to reach 600 million. This is a very high figure. The rapidly growing Chinese population is in search of better quality products and services. Accordingly, besides cultural tourism, different tourism areas such as shopping tourism, health tourism and golf tourism are becoming very popular among the Chinese people. Any efforts to attract Chinese tourists in these areas will create tremendous added value to the tourism sector in 2017,” she said. 

Currently, Turkish Airlines flies to five cities in China and this number is expected to increase, according to officials.