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Season 2012: Turkey loses tourists

08:07, 4 мая 2012

This year fewer tourists came to Turkey on vacation than in 2011. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the country, for the period from January to March 2012, Turkey received only 3.44 million foreign citizens, which is 6.35% less than last year. “Season 2011 turned out to be very good for Turkey, situation in the Middle East played a positive role here. However, the 2012 tourist season started with a loss on travel market, which can especially be seen on the costal resorts, for example, Antalya. Nevertheless, we expect the situation to normalize during the May-October period, and the tourist season all in all will be not that bad”, - said the representative of the Federation of hoteliers of Turkey (TUROFED) Osman Ayik.

 

Turkey’s tense relations with Syria and Iran influenced negatively the tourism sector, as well as the Turkey’s government’s position on crisis in Syria. So, for the period from January to February 2012 the tourist flow from Syria and Iran dropped by 25% and 29% respectively. The number of Russian tourists relaxing on resorts of Antalya (-33%) and Mugla (-93%) reduced significantly. The head of the Seven Tour Company, Deniz Tyufekchi believes that in case of a military conflict and Turkish forces entering Syria, the tourism sector will be prejudiced badly. Four million people employed in the tourist business sphere will be left without work.

 

“During the first war in the Persian Gulf, tourism in Turkey almost went bad. If the war starts, there will be a fuel-price-increase, which will affect many sectors of the economy, from transport to tourism; the tourist flow from Western Europe will reduce significantly”, - believes the former Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, Bakhattin Judgel.

 

This year’s events of the “Arabian spring” affect tourism in Turkey unfavorably. “The Arabian spring influenced tourism both positively and negatively. Last year the events on the Middle East positively influenced the tourism sector. A part of tourists preferred to spend their vacation in Turkey instead of Italy, Greece, Egypt and Tunisia, and it favored the inbound tourist flow. But this year the situation changed in the opposite way. Due to the uncertain situation with Syria, Turkey has lost much more tourist than last year, might be not less than 500 thousand people”, - said the Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertugrul Gyunay.

 

Thus, according to the data of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, from January to March 2012 the tourist flow to Antalya reduced by 15.8%, while during the same period in 2011 it increased by 14.8%. The number of tourists in Izmir (-33%) and Mugla (-40%) reduced significantly. Early hotel booking for May holidays didn’t even reach the level of 2011.

 

Nevertheless, according to the opinion of the Head of Unser Tour travel agency, Aziz Glyuneyly, the number of tourists from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland is expected to increase in Antalya by 10% during the season 2012. “Approximately 84% of tourists from Scandinavia go to Turkey for beach holiday, 16% prefer cultural, historical, archeological and sports tourism. This year in Antalya we expect to receive 1.1 million tourists from the countries of Northern Europe”, - said Mr. Glyuneyly.

 

“In 2011 Turkey received 31.4 million tourists and, according to Turkish Statistics Department (TurkStat), the income of tourism sector amounted to $23 billion. The European market still remains a priority for Turkey. However, the economy crisis in Europe continues, and due to that, Europeans, first of all, give up their tourist trips. The situation in the Middle East is complicated and unstable; since 2009 we have had tense political relations with Israel. And this year, the situation in Syria will have a negative impact, too. Nevertheless, we work hard to welcome about 31-33 million tourists this year, then the income growth in the travel sector will exceed $25 billion”, - calculated Mr. Gyunay during an interview with Antalyatoday newsagent.

 

According to TurkStat's data, during the period from January to March 2012, the income from the travel sector of Turkey reduced by 9.7% and amounted to $2.8 billion.

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