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international destinations,” said Koray Kuculyilmaz, the general manager of Tatilsepeti.com, an online booking company. The government generally extends the religious holidays to support tourism activity or people tend to take additional days off. Thus, this year most holidaymakers may benefit from a 9- day long eid al-adha in August. “Hotels hike their prices by 10-15 percent during such long holidays which actually depresses demand. We also see that people are making plans for shorter stays for the upcoming holiday. Last year when the eid al-adha was nine days long the average stay was 5.2 days but this year the figure is only 4.1 days,” he said. All-inclusive vacation packages are the most popular option among local holidaymakers, according to Kucukyilmaz.
The latest available data for local tourism activities provided by the country’s statistics office, TUIK, showed that last year locals made a total of 78mn trips, marking a 1.7% increase from 2017. Per capita spending during those trips was TRY513 (€81) versus TRY457 in 2017. Locals’ total holiday spending stood at TRY40.3bn in 2018, up from the previous year’s TRY35.3bn.
9.1.8 Metallurgy & mining sector news
Turkey produced a total of 302 tonnes of gold from 2001 to 2018. In 2013, Turkey’s gold output hit a record 33.5 tonnes, the head of Turkish Gold Miners Association, Hasan Yucel, said. According to data from the association, in 2000 Turkey produced almost no gold, but a year later production stood at 1.4 tonnes. It reached the 10 tonnes-mark in 2007. Turkey imported 3,842 tons of gold over the past 24 years. Back in 1995, its gold purchases from foreign countries were only 65 tonnes. In 2014, imports soared to 269 tonnes and they reached an all-time high 361 tonnes. Last year, Turkey imported 202 tons of gold. In the first four months of the 2019, Turkey purchased 46 tons of gold from other countries. In April gold imports were 13.9 tons down from 26.5 tons in the same month of last year. The association’s head downplayed the impact of gold mining on the environment. Yucel dismissed claims that local companies use cyanide for gold digging process. “Turkish miners use the same methods which are used in the U.S., Sweden, Australia and Canada,” he said.
9.2 Major corporate news 9.2.1 Oil & gas corporate news
Azerbaijan’s national oil company Socar is turning to Russia to supply the new $6.3bn refinery it built near Izmir in Turkey because crude
65 TURKEY Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com