Turkey expects more than 5 million Russian tourists in 2018 - embassy adviser

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/. Turkey expects more than 5 million Russian tourists to visit the country in 2018, said Celal Kilic, adviser on culture and tourism at the Turkish Embassy in Russia, at a news conference devoted to the Festival of Turkey in Moscow. "We expect a great number of Russian tourists, more than 5 million tourists, this year," the Turkish embassy adviser said. From January 1 to June 30, 2018, 2,400,000 Russians visited Turkey, he said. President of the Russian Tourism Industry Union (RTIU) Sergei Shpilko said, for his part, that more than 200,000 Turkish tourists would visit Russia in 2018, which is about 10% more than last year. "I think that in 2018 the number of departures from Turkey will grow and exceed 200,000 tourists even with the visa regime, compared with 180,000 last year," he told the press conference. Turkish tourists willingly visit Russia, he said: from 2010 to 2013 the tourism flow from this country grew from almost 200,000 to 385,000 people, due to which Turkey became the fourth country by the number of tourists visiting Russia. In 2016, the tourism flow fell to 120,000, and Turkey moved to the 12th place, the RTIU president said. He added that in the future the abolishment of the visa regime would help Turkey return to a position of one of the five countries that send the biggest number of tourists to Russia. The Festival of Turkey will run from August 10 to 12 in the Krasnaya Presnya park in Moscow. Read more