By Mehmet Yilmaz
BUDAPEST (AA) – A booth touting Turkey’s fine arts and cuisine is attracting would-be globetrotters at a Hungarian travel fair, said a Turkish official.
''Turkey has always been a favorite country in Hungary. Tourism figures show this too,” Hilal Demirel, a tourism attache in charge of Hungary at Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry, told Anadolu Agency at the 41st International Tourism Fair in the capital Budapest.
“We finished out 2017 on the rise. We learned that bookings for 2018 are going very well too. Our expectations for the Hungarian market this year are high,” she added.
The Turkish art of marbling or ebru is being exhibited together with Turkish music at Turkey’s fair booth, alongside some 280 tour operators.
At the fair, Turkish singer Orhan Cakmak said relations between Turkey and Hungary have historic roots and Turkish music gets a lot of attention at the fair, adding:
“It’s a great pleasure to welcome visitors from Hungary and other European countries together with music.”
Turkey’s tourism revenue reached $26.3 billion in 2017, with more than 38 million foreigners visiting the country, according to official data.
