The Turkish Banks Association (TBB) is set to initiate a Tourism Support Package to ease the economic fallout from the pandemic that stalled the tourism sector.

The package aimed at meeting the institutional credit expenditures and cash needs of the tourism firms and suppliers of those firms, along with the rent and salary expenditures in a bid to cushion the COVID-19 pandemic’s negative impact on the sector and economy in general while preserving employment and production values.

The banks will allocate a TL 10 billion ($1.26 billion) credit under the guarantee of the Treasury and Finance Ministry and Credit Guarantee Fund. The credits will have a maturity term of 48 months with a 12-month nonpayment period on the condition of not exceeding Nov. 1, 2021.

The interest rate for the fixed interest loans was determined as a maximum of 14.5%.

The bail upper limit will be TL 32 million per receiver and the credit upper limit will be TL 40 million.

The banks that will be allocating Tourism Support Package loans included Akbank, Denizbank, Garanti BBVA, Halkbank, Iş Bank, QNB Finansbank, TEB, VakıfBank, Yapı Kredi and Ziraat Bank along with several participation banks, namely, Ziraat Katılım, Albaraka Türk Participation Bank, Kuveyt Türk Participation Bank, Türkiye Finans and Vakıf Katılım.

Despite the fact that thousands of tourists, mostly from Russia, Ukraine and the U.K., continued to flock to Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean coasts, the tourism industry is one of the sectors affected most by the pandemic worldwide.