Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy attended the opening of the Türkiye Culture Route Festival, which will take place from June 8-16 in Samsun, and also evaluated the situation concerning the bankrupt FTI. Noting that guests did not experience any inconveniences due to the bankruptcy, Ersoy stated that a large proportion of the 400,000 future reservations made by FTI would still come to Türkiye. He mentioned that they are in talks with tour operators on this matter and that, according to the company's representatives, FTI's receivables from hotels in Türkiye exceed its debts.
The relevant portion of Ersoy’s statement is as follows:
"Lastly, I want to address an important issue currently occupying the tourism agenda. As you know, one of Germany's largest tour operators, the FTI group, decided to halt its operations worldwide as of June 4.
We established a crisis management team at our ministry. Firstly, we organized the return of over 25,000 FTI guests who were on holiday in our country, ensuring that they experienced no significant inconvenience.
In this regard, I would like to thank, on behalf of my ministry and the sector, FTI Türkiye employees, our accommodation facilities, transfer companies, airlines, and public officials for their constructive approach and cooperation.
Secondly, we have worked to redirect the 400,000 future visitor reservations within FTI back to our country with minimal cancellations. We have completed our meetings with the administrators appointed to the company and the leading tour operators in Germany, including Turkish-origin operators, who are interested in these reservations. As of yesterday, the ministry and TGA have also launched an intensive and long-term promotional campaign across Germany in addition to our existing campaigns. As a result of all these developments, according to the information we have received, a very large proportion of FTI guests' future reservations for Türkiye are still being made.
Thirdly, company officials verbally state that their receivables from businesses across Türkiye are much higher than their debts to those businesses. This reconciliation process is ongoing.
In conclusion, we foresee that, thanks to the smooth travel process for guests caught in the crisis while on vacation and the positive impact of our new campaign with tour operators, we will get through this period with minimal losses as Türkiye and achieve our target of 7 million German visitors set at the beginning of the season."
