Is it possible to travel to Turkey with an internal passport?
In Turkey They are going to return to the issue of the possibility of introducing entry for Russian tourists with internal passports. The issue will be discussed at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries on March 28 in Antalya.
This issue was discussed before the crisis in Russian-Turkish relations in 2015. At the same time, they talked about the likelihood of giving tourists to pay in Turkey in rubles - the Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation A. Ulyukayev and his colleague from the Republic of Turkey N. Zaybekchi spoke about it.
At the end of March 2017, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: “Now that our relations have normalized, we can continue these negotiations.” In the near future, discussions will begin on the issue of accepting Russian tourists in Turkey who come without a foreign passport only with internal identity cards. Devices for checking such documents are already installed at airports.”
This question arises traditionally before the summer season. Maya Lomidze, Executive Director of ATOR, believes that if this attempt is successful, “it could lead to an unprecedented breakthrough in the Turkish tourist destination.” A large number of Russian citizens who do not have a passport literally rush to Turkish resorts.
But now forecasts for Turkey say that the direction will be at the same level of tourist flow from Russia or lose it, because hotel prices in Turkey are growing - forecasts for a rise in price by 15-20% were announced at the end of 2018.
Also in 2019, Europeans are actively going to the resorts of Turkey, and this pushes local hotels to increase prices. At the same time, the welfare of Russians is falling.
Turkey’s calculations for tourists without OAH are generally clear – it is at their expense that the Turks hope to keep or even beat last year’s record of Russian tourist flow. We have passports for the entire population – about 30 million, while about half of them are actively used. And the total population is 140 million, respectively, with the permission of trips without OTP, the tourist flow will seriously increase, explained G. Kosarev, director of the tour operator Russian Express.
Regarding prices, the expert doubts that the growth of tourist traffic does not contribute to discounts and maintaining low prices for tours and tickets, that is, the hopes of Turkish hotels to keep last year’s record due to “passport-free” tourists will be in vain.
Questions will be about the process of passport-free entry, and it may not go to the Russian authorities. First, it will be necessary to allow travel to Turkey on Russian passports from the Russian side. And here it is difficult to solve even such a simple question – where to put the stamp that I crossed the border of Russia, that I entered Turkey?
According to the expert, traveling on an internal passport is allowed only within the country and within the framework of the Union State - to Belarus. Turkey has used such measures and some neighboring states (Georgia) have the right to “import” tourists to the resorts of Turkey on internal passports.