“Go to Turkey for the money you would pay for natural gas in cold weather and spend your vacation there,” said Maria Linnhoff, president of the Association of German Travel Agencies (VUSR), to German retirees, offering to provide financial assistance from the state. in the amount of 500 euros (17 thousand hryvnias) to each elderly German who intends to go to a Turkish resort. Her proposal was quoted by the Turkish media.
The unusual proposal has caused controversy in Germany, but Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy has fully backed it, urging German retirees to “come as soon as possible”.
The first step towards a solvent flow of tourists from Germany was taken at the exhibition Back to Travel 2022. After talks with representatives of the tourism sector at the exhibition in Bingen (Germany), Minister Ersoy supported the holiday offered to German retirees in Turkey.
The official said that Germany is the second-largest market for Turkish tourism, so they pay much attention to German tourists. He also announced an ambitious goal: to attract 5 million tourists from this European country.
The head of VUSR Linnhoff said that the proposal to subsidize the trip is ripe in the energy crisis, because of the cloudless bills that come in the winter months, which retirees can not overcome.
As an alternative, Linnhoff invited fellow citizens to spend the winter in the southern cities of Turkey (Alanya, Side, Belek, Antalya, Kemer), Mallorca (Spain, the Balearic Islands) or Tunisia. However, the final decision on the allocation of money for vacation has not been made, as several officials said that the departure of pensioners from the country will hurt the economy.