Turkey offered Russia to hold a meeting in Antalya on tourism safety in the second half of May, the republic’s ambassador to Russia Mehmet Samsar said on Tuesday, May 4.
“We have sent our official invitation to the meeting of the Turkish-Russian working subgroup on tourism safety, which was scheduled for April, but was postponed, with a proposal to hold it in the second half of May in Antalya, so that the Russian authorities would see the measures taken and they would not have no questions, ”he told TASS.
According to Samsar, a decrease in the incidence of COVID-19 has been observed in coastal cities popular with Russian tourists.
As an example, he cited Antalya, where in the week from April 24 to April 30, the rate of decline in the number of cases was 35% compared to the previous week.
“We strive to reduce the number of cases to 5 thousand by May 17,” he added.
The diplomat also said that Turkey would be ready to resume air traffic with Russia, taking into account the development of the epidemic situation by June 1.
Against the background of a worsening epidemiological situation in Turkey, a lockdown was announced for the period from April 29 to May 17. President of the Republic Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that all offices and hotels will be closed, only emergency services and production facilities will work, where the process cannot be stopped.
In addition, from May 7, the country will introduce a number of additional measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. According to the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, stores will be prohibited from selling any goods that are not included in the list of essential products.
Against the background of the situation in Turkey, Russia suspended flights with this country from April 15 to June 1. As of April 30, tour operators have completed the export of Russian organized tourists from Turkey. Along with this, there are still independent travelers. During May, Russian and Turkish airlines are planning to perform 111 export flights, which will carry about 21.5 thousand passengers.
According to the Worldometer portal, by May 4, 4,900,121 cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Turkey, over 41,000 deaths were recorded.