According to European Travel Commission, Turkey had the biggest tourist count increase among 33 European countries. The number of tourists visiting Turkey has increased by 22% to reach 46.1 million, while 1 out of 3 of these tourists preferred Istanbul. The number of Arab tourists, the top visitors of Turkey and Istanbul, has increased by 30% and reached 2.5 million, said the report.
Now take the benefit of growing interest of people in Istanbul, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has started a new digital tourism project called “Visit Istanbul” to spread the knowledge about the historical and cultural values of Istanbul on an international scale. Middle East Countries, United Kingdom, Russia, USA, Germany, France, India, and China have been determined as target countries. Throughout one year, a different tourism-oriented project will be carried out with target countries particularly via digital platforms, said a statement from government department.
The first ‘History' themed introductory movie of Visit Istanbul project ‘Meet With History Of Your Dream City' has been published on project's social media pages. In the movie, including original pieces of music, extremely colorful and magnificent scenes about the monumental history of Istanbul are shown. The next movie will be ‘Gastronomy Istanbul' introducing the cuisine of Istanbul.
For the project, four fashion phenomenons of social media have met in Istanbul at the start of the campaign. Laura Comolli from Italy, Barbora Ondrackova from the Czech Republic, Michèle Krusi from Switzerland and Simla Canpolat from Turkey took a full city tour over 3 days and shared images with their followers.
Within the scope of ‘Visit Istanbul' which is also known as Turkey's first official city marketing project, world-famous travel stars, notably Jeniffer Tuffen from England, Dotz Soh from Singapore and Umit Yoruk from Turkey, will meet in Istanbul over 5 days between 17-21 March.
