Turkey scraps visa for Belgian and Dutch tourists.

Hami Aksoy, the representative for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday that citizens from 6 European countries can travel to Turkey from 2 March without a visa.

Turkey has decided to exempt visa requirements for the members of the European Union Schengen area, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland as well as the United Kingdom citizens for touristic travels to Turkey for every 90 days within 180 day period.

This step aims at increasing our tourism potential with these countries as well as further developing our trade, economic and cultural relations. 

Turkey is already a popular destination for British tourists. More than 2.5 million Britons visited the country last year. A total of 51.9 million people from abroad went on holiday to Turkey last year: 44.7 million foreigners and 7.2 million Turkish expats. This was the highest number of tourists ever, and Turkey is in sixth place in the list of most visited countries in the world tourist organisation of the UN (UNWTO).