Turkey- Alarm bells toll for Turkish tourism sector over Russia crisis
Date
11/25/2015 6:48:14 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Turkish tourism representatives have voiced concern afterRussianForeign Minister Sergei Lavrov advised Russians on Nov. 24 not to visit Turkey after Turkey downed of aRussianplane on the Syrian frontier.
Lavrov also said the threat of terrorism in Turkey was no less than in Egypt where a bomb attack brought down aRussianpassenger plane last month. RussianPresident Vladimir Putin on Nov. 25 backed a recommendation from the foreign ministry for Russians not to visit Turkey after the downing of aRussianfighter jet by Ankara.
"After such tragic events like the destruction of our plane and the death of our pilot this is a necessary measure" Putin said in televised comments.
Russia’s tourism agency then recommended the suspension of package holiday sales to Turkey although some said they will not cancel reservations to Turkey in a joint statement on Nov. 25.
“This is no good. We cannot lose theRussianmarket which is the second largest source of Turkey’s tourism sector. We have already lost over 800000Russiantourists over this year due to economic woes in [Russia] and had to make significant cuts in hotel prices to overcome our losses in addition to other concessions.Despite this we still cannot close the gap” said the head of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TUROFED) Osman Ayk.
Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB) President Baaran Ulusoy expressed his wish to see Turkey andRussiain peaceful relations.
“Russia is of great importance for our tourism sector. We want to see the resolution of the problems between the two countries immediately. We would like to see Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin and Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoanresolve the issue via dialogue” he said.
Specifically Turkey’s seaside resorts are among the most popular tourism destinations for Russians.Russiais Turkey’s second-largest number of tourist market after Germany despite the relatively recent decline in the number ofRussiantourists visiting Turkey due to economic problems in Russia.
Turkey saw a decrease of approximately 25 percent in the number of tourists fromRussiaand its neighbors over this year. However Turkey did become more attractive forRussiantourists after Moscow suspended flights to Egypt. Around 3.3 million Russians visited Turkey over this year.
Turkey’s tourism revenues declined 4.4 percent reaching only $12.29 billion in the third quarter the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜK) said on Oct. 30 amid security concerns and a decrease in the number ofRussiantourists visiting the country.
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