Tourism to Türkiye is increasing thanks to the power of the small screen, according to cultural analysts who have spotted the trend for TV-and-film-driven travel making itself felt in the Anatolian republic.
Turkish television dramas, known as “dizi” in Turkish, are experiencing a surge in worldwide popularity and in line with that, an influx of tourists curious to see the sets and landscapes that appear in their favourite shows. While 64% of respondents to a 2023 American Express survey said they had been influenced by TV and film to travel to certain destinations, that figure rises to 70% for Millennials and Gen Z. Multiplying that by the global reach of Turkish series, which increased by 184% between 2020 and 2023 according to audience-demand researcher Parrot Analytics, makes Türkiye one of the world’s major TV exporters.
400 million viewers per night
Izzet Pinto, CEO of Global Agency, a TV content distributer selling Turkish dramas to world markets confirms that from being an avid importer of Latin American series, Türkiye has turned the tables. “We reach over 400 million viewers every night around the world,” he says. “The soft power we create with Turkish dramas cannot be even compared to what could be done in politics.”
The shows are wide-ranging, from Gumus, a 2005 series that explored the culture clash between traditional ways and modern urban life, to historical dramas like “Magnificent Century,” dramatising the 16th-century Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. But one thing they all have in common, according to Pinto, is their focus on family-friendly viewing, something that only serves to magnify the potential audience. “There’s no nudity, no cursing or bad words, not much hate. So, this becomes watchable by the family,” he explains.
“Something for everyone”
Haley Uganadi, the woman behind the Turkish TV platform “Dizilah,” agrees. Dizilah is averaging around 1.5 million viewers every month from countries as diverse as the United States, Canada, Greece, India, and Pakistan, and Uganadi puts the success of the country’s TV series down to their universality. “They offer something for everyone,” she says, “regardless of where you are from. Watching Turkish dramas, I see reflections of my mom, myself, and my siblings.”
That wide fanbase is increasingly hauling itself off the sofa to go and visit the places behind the screen. One such is Bozdag Film Studios, a huge north Istanbul facility, where epic Ottoman-era histories like “Resurrection: Ertugrul” and “Foundation: Osman” were made. And the phenomenon looks set to continue, if the $1 billion brought in from overseas TV exports in 2023 translates into further international visitors, seduced by Türkiye’s landscapes, cuisine, fashions, rich history, and complex culture.
