More people from Russia visit the north than from any other third country outside of Turkey, the north’s ‘tourism minister’ Fikri Ataoglu said on Tuesday.

Speaking in ‘parliament’, he said that around 40,000 Russian tourists had visited the north via tourism agencies in 2023.

Meanwhile, he said, his ‘ministry’ is making efforts to reduce ticket prices for flights to and from the north’s Tymbou (Ercan) airport.

To this end, he said, widebody aircraft are now flying to the airport “every single day” and the number of flights is also being increased.

However, he said, the number of passengers wishing to fly to the north is also increasing, meaning that “flight ticket prices are not yet at the desired levels.”

With this in mind, he said his ‘ministry’ had entered discussions with Turkish-German airline SunExpress with a view to operating flights to new destinations from May.

He added that “SunExpress’ goal is to fly to may countries outside Turkey via Antalya from September,” and that developments to this end would be shared with the public.