Fewer Israeli tourists after Davos outburst
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Radikal
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 04, 2009 00:00
ANTALYA - Israeli tourists to Antalya have decreased 65 percent so far this year, likely due to the economic crisis and the tension caused by the Turkish prime minister’s outburst at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.
One of Turkey’s leading centers for tourism, Antalya hosted 77,237 Israeli tourists in the first four months of last year. This year, during the same time period, only 27,534 Israeli citizens visited the city. Antalya is anxious about losing its share of the 350,000-strong tourism market from Israel.
Kerim Çavuşoğlu, the Antalya regional acting board president for the Turkish Association of Travel Agents, or TÜRSAB, said this serious downsizing in the Israeli market should be a lesson for Turkey.
"The Davos incident has shown one more time how delicate tourism is," said Çavuşoğlu, adding that the global economic crisis also has not helped. "Of course, the reasons for this downsizing are not only political arguments, but if we say, ’Tourism is the apple of our eye,’ we should act accordingly."
Serdar Ünsalan, an Antalya representative of the Flying Carpet travel agency, which handles 40 percent of the transportation between Israel and Turkey, said Erdoğan’s "one minute" remark damaged them, and that they expect its effect to last until 2011. Ünsalan estimated Turkey’s loss from the shrinkage of the Israeli market this year to be $100 million.
Sururi Çorabatır, president of the Mediterranean Tourist Hoteliers and Operators Union, or AKTOB, said the group has a project in the works to prevent the downsizing of the market and argued it is not right to look at the downsizing from only one angle and just blame politics.
Kerim Çavuşoğlu, the Antalya regional acting board president for the Turkish Association of Travel Agents, or TÜRSAB, said this serious downsizing in the Israeli market should be a lesson for Turkey.
"The Davos incident has shown one more time how delicate tourism is," said Çavuşoğlu, adding that the global economic crisis also has not helped. "Of course, the reasons for this downsizing are not only political arguments, but if we say, ’Tourism is the apple of our eye,’ we should act accordingly."
Serdar Ünsalan, an Antalya representative of the Flying Carpet travel agency, which handles 40 percent of the transportation between Israel and Turkey, said Erdoğan’s "one minute" remark damaged them, and that they expect its effect to last until 2011. Ünsalan estimated Turkey’s loss from the shrinkage of the Israeli market this year to be $100 million.
Sururi Çorabatır, president of the Mediterranean Tourist Hoteliers and Operators Union, or AKTOB, said the group has a project in the works to prevent the downsizing of the market and argued it is not right to look at the downsizing from only one angle and just blame politics.