Skift Take
When a city bids for a chance to host a major event, it's always about more than the event itself. Istanbul has leveraged the attention to grow as a destination and add thousands of hotels over the last two decades.
Tens of thousands of visitors are descending upon Istanbul ahead of the final game of the season for the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League on Saturday, where Manchester City will play against Inter Milan at the Istanbul Atatürk Olympic Stadium.
Skift's first sight of them was on arrival at Sabiha Gökçen International Airport on Thursday: There were hundreds of people waiting to enter the country, more joining every few minutes from airplanes continually landing from abroad.
A couple of Italian men — wearing jerseys of their favorite football team — raised their fists and began singing an anthem in their language. A few notes in, a couple dozen Italian strangers were singing along.
The police quickly intervened: “Be quiet, please,” they yelled.
There were 46 commercial flights scheduled this week from Manchester to Istanbul alone, carrying more than 9,300 passengers, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Turkish Airlines is the official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League for the season.
Istan