Turkey's tourism season postponed to post-May

ISTANBUL- Anadolu Agency

Turkey's tourism season is expected to postpone until after-May period due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's culture and tourism minister said on April 2. 

"Hopefully, we will see that tourism activities will start again during the Ramadan Feast," Mehmet Nuri Ersoy noted.
Eid ul-Fitr, or Ramadan Feast, will be celebrated at the end of this May in 2020.

He added that the first activities will start with domestic tourists.

Turkey has earned $34.5 billion from tourism last year.

The minister urged tourism firms that they can benefit from the Short-Term Employment supports for their personnel.

If a firm's operations are suspended completely or partially due to a Force Majeure, such as the COVID19 pandemic, the government pays their personnel salaries.

"Amount of daily short employment allowance is 60% of daily gross average earning," according to the Turkish Employment Agency.

The virus infected 15,679 people in Turkey and caused 277 deaths so far.