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![Antalya is considered one of the world's most popular tourist destinations [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/249082503_8-e1472865544542.jpg)
Antalya is considered one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations [Xinhua]
The airport is 20 kilometers northeast of Antalya city, a popular tourist destination on the Mediterranean Sea.
The Russian tourists were given flowers as they disembarked in a sign of warming relations between Ankara and Moscow.
The return of Russian tourists to Turkey’s sea resorts comes amid a drastic drop in the number of visitors to Turkey in the first half of 2016.
Between January and July, tour operators in Turkey noticed a drop of at least 50 per cent in the number of tourists to the country – mostly due to the cold war which flared between Russia and Turkey after Ankara ordered its forces to down a Russian SU-24 in Syrian airspace.
But a rapprochement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Teyyep Erdogan is already starting to pay dividends.
On Sunday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed the decree which lifted the ban on charter flights between Russia and Turkey.
“Airline carries have started submitting requests to Rosaviatsiya (the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency) for carrying out on-demand operations to the Turkish Republic. Thus, Russian air authorities are ready to provide necessary conditions for charter flights to Turkey, including issuing all relevant permissions,” Russia Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said in a statement carried by local media.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
