Mustafa Ozkaya has been appointed director UK and Ireland of the Turkish Tourism Board, and will be based out of the Turkish Office of Culture and Information in London.

He will be responsible for leading all tourism promotion activities for Turkey in the UK and Ireland, including industry engagement, marketing and communications, and governmental liaison.

Ozkaya brings a media background to his new role, joining the tourist board following spells with Al Jazeera and Turkish news agency Anadolu, where he was deputy director general.

"The UK and Ireland is a market of enormous strategic importance to Türkiye, with visitor numbers growing rapidly every year," said Ozkaya.

"Our travel industry partners are an integral part of this success story, creating flight and holiday programmes from points across the UK and Ireland – engaging and supporting them will be an early priority for me.”

Turkey will host Abta’s annual Travel Convention in Bodrum later this month, while the country is this year celebrating the 100th anniversary of its foundation as a republic.

Elsewhere, Turkey embarked on the first phase of its sustainability partnership programme with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council this year, with more than 6,000 accommodation facilities already having achieved sustainability certification.

"This landmark programme is accelerating the country’s global sustainability practices and restructuring the Turkish Tourism industry with a comprehensive three-year agreement," said the tourist board.