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Türkiye has launched a new phase in its international tourism promotion, introducing high-quality, story-driven mini-series under the GoTürkiye brand to showcase the country’s cultural richness, urban identity and cinematic landscape to global audiences.
Announced at a press conference held at the Ataturk Cultural Center in Istanbul and coordinated by the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA), the initiative positions narrative storytelling as a central pillar of Türkiye’s tourism strategy, transforming destinations into lived experiences rather than visited locations.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said that contemporary tourism has evolved from “a simple choice of destination” into “a journey of emotion, story and lifestyle,” and emphasized that Türkiye is reshaping its promotional approach through creative productions that reflect the country’s identity on screen.
Ersoy emphasized that with more than 60 tourism products ranging from gastronomy and health tourism to faith, culture, sports, meetings and congress tourism, Türkiye has transformed from a country that is merely visited into one that is experienced as a destination.
He added that TGA’s innovative digital structure has become the principal platform showcasing this transformation.
The minister also noted that TGA carries out promotional activities in nearly 200 countries, while the GoTürkiye brand has grown into a global platform publishing content in 10 languages.
He stated that GoTürkiye’s social media channels now reach 21.3 million followers across nine platforms, and that advertising and promotional films produced to date have achieved 31.5 billion impressions and 11 billion views worldwide.
Minister Ersoy underlined that Türkiye is among the world’s leading television production centers in terms of both output volume and export capacity. He stated that Turkish TV series are watched in approximately 170 countries by nearly 1 billion viewers, and that export revenues from series have exceeded $1 billion.
Highlighting the cultural and linguistic influence of Turkish productions, Ersoy remarked: “Just as Hollywood films helped spread the English language globally, Turkish series today are contributing to the spread of the Turkish language. Turkish TV series represent the world’s largest Turkish language classroom.”
Ersoy stated that the ministry has incorporated the narrative impact of the television industry into its tourism promotion strategy by adopting the mini-series format. He noted that the promotional series produced under TGA coordination, featuring internationally recognized Turkish actors, places storytelling at the center of destination branding and reflects Türkiye’s cultural, historical and social richness.
The projects:
According to the minister, the first two productions have reached more than 2.9 billion impressions worldwide, while the subsequent series have rapidly surpassed hundreds of millions of views, contributing significantly to Türkiye’s international visibility.
Ersoy stated that artists, production companies and creative teams involved in these projects “have assumed a national responsibility,” and described participation in TGA promotional series as “equivalent to wearing the national jersey.”
Announcing a forthcoming support mechanism for productions that contribute to Türkiye’s promotion abroad, Ersoy said that television series that meet defined promotional criteria, feature scenes aligned with the national tourism strategy, and are exported to at least ten countries across three continents will be eligible for ministerial support. He added that applications will be evaluated by a dedicated commission.
Ersoy further noted that ancient sites and archaeological areas restored under the "Heritage for the Future Project" will, subject to necessary protective measures, be opened for use as filming locations for series and films.
The meeting was also attended by Director General of Cinema Birol Guven, actors Ozan Akbaba, Sinem Unsal, Eda Ece and producer Fatih Aksoy.
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