We will advance towards great goals in tourism with our Minister Ersoy...

Timur Bayındır, Chair of the Turkish Hoteliers Association (TÜROB), made a statement regarding the new cabinet. Recalling that the presidential and parliamentary elections had been successfully completed by the nation together, Chair Bayındır said: “Under the leadership of our President, the teams that will carry our country towards its 2023 goals have now been determined. We hope that, by working in harmony with the new cabinet and with even higher motivation, a new era of momentum will be launched in both the Turkish economy and tourism through public-private sector cooperation.” Bayındır, who said, “We were greatly pleased that a colleague from within the sector, Mr Mehmet Ersoy, has become Minister of Culture and Tourism. We see this as a very positive development for the tourism sector. As the owner of one of our country’s leading hotel, travel agency and airline organisations, the Minister knows the problems of our sector very well. We will advance towards great goals with our new Minister Ersoy, a tourism professional,” added the following: “As representatives of the world of tourism, we have always been in favour of stability and a growing Türkiye. With the removal of the climate of uncertainty, activity in the economy and the tourism sector will increase. Tourism is indispensable to the Turkish economy. In this period, structural reforms must be accelerated and the economy must be the main item on the agenda. We will provide all the support we can for the growth and development of the economy and, consequently, of our sector. We wish success to all our esteemed Ministers serving in the new cabinet, foremost our Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mr Mehmet Ersoy, and we hope it will be beneficial for our country and our nation.”

Who is Mehmet Ersoy?

He was born in Istanbul in 1968. He studied in the English-language Business Administration Department of Istanbul University. He entered the tourism sector while a student at the German School (Alman Lisesi), through the tour organisations he arranged.

Mehmet Ersoy, Chairman of the Board of Etstur — founded in 1991 to provide package tour and hotel accommodation services in the tourism sector — launched Voyage Hotels in 2000, Didimtur in 2001, Jetset and Ucuzabilet.com in 2006, and the Maxx Royal Belek and Maxx Royal Kemer hotels in 2011. Maxx Royal hosted the finals of the European Tour Turkish Airlines Open, one of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments. The company, which has operated the Aegean Paradise ship since 2012 and the Aegean Odyssey ship in the 2013 and 2015 seasons, also holds the distinction of being the only tourism company in Türkiye operating cruise ships. In 2017, it launched the online reservation platform odamax.com, beginning to provide online reservation services from all corners of the world. Over the years, the company built the entire chain of requirements in the organised travel sector — transport, accommodation and agency services — with the brands Maxx Royal Resorts, Voyage Hotels, Didimtur, Odamax.com, Etsmice, Jetset, Ucuzabilet.com, Lets go magazine and Otelpuan.com, which were later brought together under the Etsgroup umbrella.

Ersoy, who speaks English and German, is married and a father of two.