Turkey appreciated the possibility of closing flights to the country due to a new strain

If the incidence of COVID-19in Turkey continues to grow, then the country's authorities may go for new restrictions on air travel. However, so far there are no grounds for such a development of events, the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the country believes.

The Turkish authorities do not guarantee that the country's airports will continue to receive foreign tourists if the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to grow in the country, but so far "everything is good" in this regard, said the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy. He announced this on the CNN Turk TV channel, answering a question about the potential closure of Turkey this season due to the spread of a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, RIA Novosti reports.

“There is no guarantee against anything, and, of course, you need to look at what is happening in a number of provinces with the Delta strain. However, for international flights, the situation throughout the country is taken into account,” Ersoy said.

According to him, now the authorities of the country consider the vaccination of all citizens of the country a priority. “If it accelerates, then Turkey will fully return to normal life. And the longer it drags on, the longer normalization will take,” the minister said.

In general, according to Ersoy, now “everything is good” in the country, Turkey expects to receive 25 million tourists this year, having received $ 20 billion in revenue. “We closed June in accordance with our expectations. We have ambitious goals for July, which, apparently, will also be achieved, judging by the data we receive from airports,” the Turkish minister added.

In mid-April, due to a sharp increase in the number of cases of coronavirus in Turkey, Russia limited air traffic with this country, leaving only two weekly scheduled flights between Moscow and Istanbul.