Turkish Airlines to announce special offer

Turkish Airlines is going to announce special offer 'free accommodation with transit visa for a day in Istanbul' to the Pakistani passengers, travelling to United States of America and United Kingdom by the first week of March. This was disclosed by Fateh Atacan TEMEL General Manager Turkish Airlines (TA) in Karachi during a chit-chat with a group of journalists at luncheon meeting at a hotel, here on Monday.
He said Turkey had hosted around 13,000 Pakistani tourists in year 2015, which he termed as 20 percent growth as compared to preceding years.
Keeping this positive business impact from Pakistan in view, Turkish Airlines has now decided to start its special offer 'free accommodation with transit visa for a day in Istanbul' from Pakistan.
Moreover, he said that that special offer, which would be commenced from March for next four months, would provide a lucrative opportunity to the Pakistani passengers travelling to United States of America and United Kingdom to tour the historical places of Roman & Ottoman eras and experience the fine blend of old and modern Turkey in a city of mosques Istanbul.
"If this special offer, which will primarily be started from Pakistan by the first week of March, gets overwhelming response then the same will be announced at rest of the other networks of Turkish Airlines," he answered.
Although Turkey has strict visa policy, the deliberations with Turkish foreign office are underway for smooth processing of transit visas with no charges to the Pakistani passengers travelling to United States of America and United Kingdom with free accommodation a day in Istanbul, he maintained.
Fateh further said Turkish Airlines was also extending code sharing agreement with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to several European and US destinations and CEO PIA and Marketing Director in this regard would fly to Istanbul on January 25, 2017 to sign a deal with Turkish Airlines.
"With the expansion of successfully existing code share agreement, PIA will be able to sell Turkish Airlines' beyond Istanbul points of Atlanta, Johannesburg Atina, Amsterdam, Taskent, Moskova, Miami, Boston, Houston, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago with its own airline code and flight number in addition to already existing cooperation on routes Istanbul-Karachi/Islamabad/Lahore while Turkish Airlines will market PIA operating flights from Karachi and Islamabad to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Muscat and from Lahore to Dubai and Abu Dhabi with its own airline code and flight number".
Replying to another question, Fateh said Health Tourism Council of Turkey was also planning to organise a series of 'Health Conference' in three major cities of Pakistan - Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad by the first week of March 2017 in order to engage Pakistani doctors to promote health tourism for Turkey.
He said that around 150 doctors with different specializations would be engaged in Karachi and Islamabad conferences while around 100 doctors would be invited for the conference to be held in Lahore. "Turkish health tourism is more expensive than Singapore but we are offering best health services in our state-of-the-art hospitals," he answered.
Furthermore, he said Turkey was more focusing on the passengers especially from Arab and African countries including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, etc for health tourism.