North American travelers seeking to visit Turkey will no longer need a visa in order to be permitted into the country.
Specifically, visitors from North America will no longer be required to purchase E-visas, according to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched the E-visa program for visitors to Turkey back in April 2013. The system allows visitors to obtain an E-visa online via a process that takes about three minutes.
As part of the new announcement, however, visitors from the United States, Canada and Mexico are now among some 20 countries that are not required to have such a permit for a visit to Turkey.
The U.S. State Department website also confirms this new development, noting that visas are not required for visits to Turkey that are under 90 days.
However, the State Department also maintains its Level 2 warning for the destination, which indicates that travelers should “exercise increased caution…due to terrorism and arbitrary detentions.”
Some areas of the country have increased risk, according to the advisory and travelers are advised to read State Department guidelines carefully before visiting.
Turkey’s tourism industry has also been struggling to recover since the devastating earthquakes that impacted the country in February, which killed more than 50,000 people.