ISTANBUL, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's financial and cultural hub Istanbul is expected to revive tourism in 2022 as a luxurious tourist destination among foreign travelers, according to sector insiders.
Muberra Eresin, president of the Hotel Association of Turkey (TUROB), said that the demand for Istanbul is significantly increasing in the foreign luxury tourism market, and bookings have been made for the coming period.
Carrying high hopes for the future about obtaining a recovery from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, TUROB has participated in the International Luxury Tourism Market Fair that kicked off on Monday in Cannes, France.
Eresin said on her social media account that the new tourism season that would start in next April in Istanbul "would be quite busy" based on the bilateral deals reached in the fair.
According to the latest data from Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, nearly 7 million people visited the city in the first 10 months of this year.
A significant comeback has been observed in the second half of the year, rising expectations for the next season, the data revealed.
Istanbul has many luxury tourism facilities, including hotels and restaurants, transformed from ancient Ottoman-era mansions and palaces mostly located along the shores of the Bosphorus Strait, attracting high-end tourists.
Turkey's other tourist destinations, such as Cappadoccia in Central Anatolia, western Izmir province, and the resort town of Bodrum in the southwestern Mugla province, are also in high demand among extravagant holidaymakers, according to Eresin.
Also, Istanbul hosts the Bosphorus Strait, which divides the European and Asian continents, providing unique sightseeing opportunities, luring foreign couples to have elegant wedding ceremonies in boats and palaces.
The boat tours with luxury yachts on the Bosphorus strait have been essential components of the luxury tourism market, which seeks to give extravagance services to upper segment visitors.
Professionals of the marriage industry have recently come together in Istanbul at the "Wedding Dream Art" event and exhibited the wedding trends of 2022.
The city had seen a drastic decline in the number of foreign tourists amid the pandemic at the beginning of this year. In January, it attracted only 334,825 tourists with a 67.1 percent year-on-year decrease, according to the Istanbul Statistical Office. Enditem
