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.