News from Turkey

Istanbul born Başak Demirci is a Turkish painter based in Bodrum, Turkey. Her paintings decorate walls of hospitals and boutique hotels and she wants to work for more companies.

As the Turkey's central government budget balance posted a deficit of some 66.5 billion Turkish liras ($11.9 billion) in the January-May period this year, a new omnibus bill is submitted to Turkish parliament.

Every year in July, I like to travel abroad to celebrate my birthday. This year, it won’t be different until I got my first rejection two days before the flight. As a travel writer for over 20 years in the industry, I have been rejected for the first time and not welcomed by a country.

Low-cost Turkish carrier Pegasus Airlines is joining forces with Expedia Partner Solutions (EPS), the B2B brand of Expedia Group, to offer its travelers access to competitive accommodation and package rates in order to keep up with Turkey’s rapid increase in both domestic and international tourism.

Turkey's leading low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines launched scheduled flights between Manchester Airport and Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen and beyond on 1^st July 2019.

SunExpress, the joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, continues to increase its flights between Turkey and Europe during the 2019 summer season. SunExpress is connecting a total of 12 Anatolian cities with direct scheduled flights to Europe’s 16 cities, with capacity growth of 30 per cent this summer compared to the previous year.

Hilton announced the opening of Doubletree by Hilton Istanbul Esentepe. The 104-room hotel, located in Esentepe, Sisli is the latest addition to the growing DoubleTree by Hilton portfolio.

Boeing announced that the first 787-9 Dreamliner for Turkish Airlines is delivered on June 26. Turkey's flag carrier plans to use the airplane's fuel efficiency, range, reliability and size to operate new non-stop international routes such as Bali, Bogota-Panama, Washington and Atlanta.

At the 29^th ACI EUROPE Annual Congress in Cyprus – the annual gathering for airport CEOs across Europe TAV Airports signed a landmark commitment to become net zero for their carbon emissions by 2050 at two of its airports, Izmir Adnan Menderes and Ankara Esenboga in Turkey.

A new passenger rail service started on Monday with a passenger train leaving capital Tehran for Turkey’s eastern city of Van. The once-weekly train will have a stopover in Iran’s northwestern city of Tabriz before crossing the border.

Marriott's The Luxury Collection announced the opening of Reges, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Çeşme. Owned by Reges Turizm Inşaat A.Ş., the hotel marks The Luxury Collection's third hotel in Turkey, joining the brand's existing properties in Bodrum and Ankara.

A study undertaken for European Cities Marketing (ECM) by ForwardKeys, which analyses over 17 million flight booking transactions a day, reveals that Istanbul is set to be Europe’s city tourism hot spot in the third quarter of 2019 (July 1st - September 30th).

The 47th Istanbul Music Festival kicked off on June 11 with the opening ceremony and concert held at the Lütfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Center.

Following the last year's launch of first direct flights between Kyiv (Ukraine) and Izmir (Turkey) by Pegasus Airlines, now Ukraine International Airlines is also starting on the same route with even better flight schedule.