ISTANBUL
Türkiye’s flag carrier, Turkish Airlines, is offering free city and studio tours to international passengers waiting for transit at the IGA Istanbul Airport for six to 24 hours to travel to another country.
Some passengers prefer to visit Riva, a place in the northern district of Beykoz in Istanbul, where the Bozdag Film Studio is situated. Turkish historical fiction television dramas are filmed here.
Passengers waiting for long transit times can board the TourIstanbul buses at the airport to visit the world’s third-largest and Europe’s largest studio, spanning 200 acres. Historical fiction series like Dirilis Ertugrul, Kurulus Osman, and Destan are filmed here.
Visitors get the chance to explore the set and learn about Turkish history, culture, and dramas alongside a studio guide, and then they are treated to soup and meals cooked in a six-burner cauldron and a rice pudding while participating in activities like glass-making in a workshop and watching the “Atlarin Destani” (transliterated as Legend of the Horses) show before their return to the airport.
Abdullah Yormaz, marketing manager at Turkish Airlines, told Anadolu that these tours to studios take place once a day between 12:00 and 18:00 local time in Istanbul, and passengers with an eligible transfer time can apply on the flag carrier’s website for these studio tours or by visiting the TourIstanbul office at the IGA Istanbul Airport.
“We are here at the studio with 25 guests today, and sometimes we have up to 100 guests a day at the beginning of summer,” he said. “Some 3,000 passengers have made this tour since the beginning of the year, and some 5,000 people in total last year.”
Yormaz stated that many passengers purposefully choose this tour out of the five other ones with a keen interest in Turkish historical TV dramas.
“They come from South America, Asia, and the Middle East, where these shows are broadcast, but we also have a significant number of passengers from Turkic republics, though we get more Mexicans,” he said. “We see some significant participation in this tour by guests from the US, where a lot of Pakistani and Indian guests come from, the Arab and Turkic regions, Kazakhstan, the Asia-Pacific region, and Indonesia.”
Mani Krishna, an Indian working in Mexico, said they arrived in Istanbul after a 15-hour flight, and they stopped for the tour before their flight to New Delhi.
Krishna said they knew of this tour before, and their friend had recommended it.
“Everything here is free; this is the first time I’ve seen something like this,” said Krishna, noting that the food served was delicious. “It was a great idea to take a break like this after the flight to get some fresh air.”
Abdulsalam Arbaoui, a traveler from Tunisia, said he enjoyed the event at the film studio. “I went to Friday prayers with other Turkish people, and the people are very nice,” he said. “This is my first time here, and I feel very happy—I watch some Turkish TV series, and I like them as a Muslim, and thanks to these series, I see Turkish and Tunisian cultures blending together.