Karachi: Newly appointed Turkish Consul General in Karachi Tolga Ucak has called for enhanced cooperation between aviation sectors of both countries. Speaking at Turkish Airlines Agency Award Ceremony 2017 in Karachi, he also underlined the progress that the Turkish Airlines achieved in the timeline and contribution of the Turkish Airlines to the image and tourism sector in Turkey. He said that Pakistan and Turkey can also benefit from each other experiences and expertise in the aviation sector and PIA and Turkish Airlines already enjoy working relationship. Tolga Ucak while praising the recent decision by government of Pakistan to introduce visa on arrival policy said that it’s a good step to promote inbound tourism in Pakistan. Since security environment is improving in Karachi, we would like to introduce Karachi to Turkish people as a safe and interesting tourism destination and hopefully more Turkish tourists would come to Pakistan in 2018. He praised the role of travel agencies in promoting Turkey as a preferred tourism destination for Pakistani tourists and informed that, according to the figures of Turkish Statistical Institute, in 2017 approximately 77,000 Pakistanis travelled to Turkey. Tolga Ucak informed that in year 2000 the number of visitors to Turkey from Pakistan was just 7,908 which reached to almost 21,000 travelers in 2007, 50,000 in 2014 and ultimately 77,000 travelers in year 2017. He hoped that with several attractive packages by Turkish Airlines, year 2018 would set a new record of Pakistani travelers travelling to Turkey. Consul General said that UN World Tourism Organization figures for global tourism for 2017 is 1.3 billion people with an annual rise of 6.7%. The number of foreigners visited Turkey in 2017 was 32.5 million with an annual increase of 27.8 percent compare to 2016. Fatih Atacan Temel GM Karachi Turkish Airlines informed that his airline has recorded 352% Increase in its corporate sales from Karachi station, achieved 34.5% revenue Increase, 5% passenger load factor Increase and 13% business class cabin load factor increase in 2017. Turkish Airlines has achieved an increase of 9.3 percent in the number of passengers in 2017 compared to the previous year, carrying 68 million 616 thousand passengers. Passenger occupancy rate increased by 4.7 percentage points to 79.1 percent. In the last month of 2017, the flag carrier reached its occupancy rate of 79.5%, the highest of its history. Established in 1933 with a fleet of five aircraft, Star Alliance-member Turkish Airlines is a 4-star airline today with a fleet of 330 (passenger and cargo) aircraft flying to 301 destinations worldwide with 252 international and 49 domestic. Published in Daily Times, March 3rd 2018.