Turks, Greeks eye more Chinese tourists

A joint project between Turkey and Greece to promote the two countries to Chinese tourists is scheduled to become operative in a short period of time.

The “Common Destination Promotion Project in China” was signed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Greek counterpart, Yorgo Papandreou, during a visit by Erdoğan to Greece in May.

The Turkish and Greek governments will sponsor a program and host executives of China’s biggest media and tourism companies to promote Turkey and Greece. The culture and tourism ministers of Turkey and Greece will deliver speeches to the audience explaining the significance the two countries attach to the Chinese market.

İlknur Yiğit, a Turkish cultural and promotional counselor at Turkey’s embassy in Beijing, said Wednesday that the project is mainly based on attracting tourists travelling to Europe to Turkey. Chinese people want to visit several countries when they go on a tour of a distant destination, he noted and went on to say that, to this end, China showed interest in Turkey’s cooperative project with Greece.

Yiğit said they will be organizing a promotional program to advertise Turkey and Greece as centers of attraction to the Chinese people. “Within the scope of the project, we will host 25 Chinese high-level tour operators and media administrators in Istanbul and Athens. We will visit Athens on June 29 and two days after, we will proceed to İstanbul,” she said.