Turkey’s OTI Holding has bought German tour operator Ferien Touristik for an undisclosed fee. OTI, which is active in the tourism, accommodation, aviation and security sectors, entered the tourism market in 1992 with its ODEON Tours venture. The Turkish holding has also been managing its network with their own brand, Coral Travel, in Russia, Belarus, […]

Turkey and Serbia on Tuesday signed a trade agreement on agriculture, the first since 2011. Ahmet Esref Fakibaba, the Turkish minister of food, agriculture and livestock, and Branislav Nedimovic, the Serbian agriculture minister, met in Serbia’s capital Belgrade to discuss ways to improve import and export between the two countries. The agreement aims to boost […]

Turkey increased its contracting companies to 46 and ranked second among the top 250 global contractors in 2016, the Turkish Contractors Association (TMB) said on Friday. Turkey had 40 international contracting companies in 2015, according to a list in the Engineering News Record (ENR) publication, the statement said. ENR’s Top 250 Global Contractors list is […]

Deposit banks see their profits reach $4.81 billion The profits of nine top Turkish lenders traded on Borsa Istanbul rose 32.9 percent in the first half of the year from the same period in 2016, according to the Public Disclosure Platform’s (KAP) data Thursday. The deposit banks, traded on the country’s main stock exchange, boasted […]

Turkey ran a budget deficit of 24.3 billion Turkish liras (nearly $6.7 billion) in the first seven months of 2017, Finance Minister Naci Agbal said Tuesday. In a written statement, Agbal said: “The budget deficit in this period was recorded due to government incentives and actions to support economic growth. This January to June, government […]

Flag carrier says 37.5 million passengers carried in the first seven months of 2017, an increase of 4.7 percent year-on-year The total number of passengers carried by Turkish Airlines rose 4.6 percent between January and July 2017 compared to the same period last year, the airline announced Friday. Turkey’s national flag carrier carried 37.5 million […]

Turkey aims to cut red tape to boost investment in the country, Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said in an interview with Anadolu Agency. Among the innovations planned are one-stop contact points across Turkey’s provinces to provide better coordination for investors, the minister said. The government is focused on improving the investment climate to boost […]

Tourism minister also maintains Turkey is safe for foreign guests Turkey wants to diversify its tourism market to reach $50 billion in annual income by 2023, the country’s culture and tourism minister said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Numan Kurtulmus said Turkey wanted to expand its tourism offerings to appeal to more Chinese, […]

The number of passengers passing through Turkish airports surged by 7.4 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2017, the country’s airport authority said on Monday. More than 105 million people traveled through airports in Turkey between January and July, up from 97.9 million in the same period last year, according to the General […]

The Borsa Istanbul stock exchange opened 559.78 points up on Monday to reach 109,105.09 points, its highest ever value. The BIST 100 jumped 0.52 percent to record its peak since opening in April 2013 — the latest of several record highs this year. The banking and holding sectors rose 0.62 percent and 0.42 percent respectively […]