Turkish Foreign Minister: We expect our Finnish friends to Turkey this summer for a safe and tranquil holiday

We are delighted to observe an increasing interest from Finn tourists for Turkey in the last couple of years. 136.000 Finnish guests spent their holiday in Turkey last year.

We are fully aware of the fact that all conditions have to be favourable for a safe and peaceful holiday in this period. Consequently, we have taken all necessary precautions and would like to host our Finnish friends in Turkey.

Firstly, I would like to express that Covid-19, which was declared as a global pandemic on 11 March, has been taken under control in Turkey. Turkish health system has demonstrated its strength and resilience against such a grave health crisis. Turkey has succeeded thanks to the capacity of her hospitals, large number of intensive care beds and treatment protocols.

Beginning from June, Turkey will gradually lift restrictions on international flights and tourism and start to welcome tourists. Therefore, I would like to inform our Finnish friends, who wish to spend their holidays abroad, that they can come to Turkey safely and peacefully. Antalya, Bodrum and Marmaris will be glad to host them.

We are taking all necessary precautions to enable our hotels, holiday resorts and our entire service sector to host our Finnish friends in Turkey from June onwards. The certification of all accommodations, buses, passengers and service personnel against Covid-19 by German TÜV and Royal Cert, British Lloyd’s Register, French Bureau Veritas and the Turkish Standards Institution will be completed shortly. Moreover, we have established binding health protocols for our airports and flights. All these measures make Turkey one of the “safe countries” in tourism.

Mr. Mehmet Ersoy, Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism has informed his Finnish counterpart in a letter about the measures taken in response to the health needs. In his letter, Minister Ersoy has expressed our desire to commence bilateral flights with Finland. Naturally, Finn tourists will be carried to Turkey with special charter flights.

I had a fruitful exchange with my Finnish counterpart, Mr. Pekka Haavisto, on 14 May. We discussed in detail the commencement of tourism between our two countries.

We would like to accelerate our efforts to open tourism season with our partners including the Government of Finland and tour operators. We are ready to host our Finnish guests in Turkey in the safest, healthiest and most peaceful manner in the summer season of 2020. We expect to see our Finnish friends, whose interest for Turkey’s offerings in tourism has evidently risen lately, once again in our country so as to enjoy a beautiful summer.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey.