Positive impact on tourism in Turkey from Japanese football players

Indicating that the announcement 'Year of Turkey' in Japan for 2019 creates opportunities for tourism Asst. Prof. Özgür Kızıldemir said that Japanese footballer Shinji Kagawa's transfer to Besiktaş to attract the interest of Japanese tourists to Turkey.

Kızıldemir also added that “when the participants in the sports tourism thought to be two times more spending than other tourists, boosting the promotion for the sports tourism, mostly football and golf, will enable the growth of Turkey's tourism economy”.

“STADIUMS MUST BE VISITED”

Noting that sports tourism, which is composed of travelers for sportive activities, has an important place in the scope of sustainable tourism Istanbul Gelisim University faculty member Asst. Prof. Özgür Kızıldemir said: “The number of tourists coming from Japan to be around 190 thousand in 2010-2013 and the decline to around 80 thousand in 2018 signaling the focus on this market. Tourists visiting Europe, especially visiting the football team stadiums by paying certain fees and watching the matches of major football clubs in Europe is important in terms of both sports tourism and cultural tourism. The quality of football in Turkey, the tourist attraction of stadiums in recent times, Besiktaş’s transfer of Kagawa and Galatasaray’s transfer Nagatomo will increase the number of tourists coming to the matches of this club. It could be effective methods for marketing activities inclusion of stadiums in cultural tours”.

“TARGET MARKET SPORTS TOURISM”

Kızıldemir indicating the need to use sports tourism as a tool for the target market for Turkey's tourism, said: “It is possible to understand this from the recent agenda issues. The announcement of a football channel in Japan about live broadcasting the Besiktaş’s matches and Japan's offer of 2 million euros for Beşiktaş-Galatasaray match to be played at broadcast time of 15:00 is a significant opportunity for promotion of Turkey, and in particular, tourism”

“PACKAGE TOURS WILL INCREASE PROFITABILITY”

Indicating that it is important for sports tourism to create the special attraction centers outside Istanbul and Antalya, Kızıldemir added: “Participating in sports tourism with package tours will decrease the tourist costs and increase the profitability. Records were broken in 2018, with the number of visitors arriving in Turkey with 45.6 million. Approximately 3.7 million of it were from Asia where more than half of the population live. It actually shows that there is a market with the undiscovered aspects for tourism”.