Turkey’s tourism remains buoyant despite Arab Spring
Figures released by Turkey’s news agency Anadolu have shown another increase in tourists to the country during the course of 2011, despite fears that the Arab Spring Uprising would severely weaken growth in the tourism industry. It appears that while bookings were indeed cancelled and some people chose to stay away from the increasingly volatile region, the numbers of people visiting Turkey is increasing so rapidly that this loss was swallowed up by their continued tourism growth.
Ertugrul Gunay, Turkey’s Culture & Tourism Minister, confirmed that more than 30 million tourists visited Turkey from January – November 2011, surpassing all expectations. The Minister told Turkish ambassadors last week that although Turkey did lose many tourists because of the unrest sweeping across the Middle East, the number of tourists visiting the country still increased relative to the year before, saying “For the first time we are surpassing 30 million visitors this year. This is an important edge in our tourism history... I received this information yesterday & I was very happy”. Anadolu analysed the figures and confirmed a 10% rise in visitor flow from the previous year, up from 28.6million to over 30.27million in the first 11 months. Visitors this year are expected to reach 32.5million, which could generate $24 billion in revenues.
To put this into perspective, in 2003 Turkey’s tourism visitors numbered 13 million so the country’s Government is unsurprisingly proud of this impressive increase in numbers.
Further research suggests that the profile of the average traveller to Turkey is changing, and this flexibility is also helping to bolster the industry. Most visitors are still European, but there are an increasing number of visitors from Arab countries and also South America. One perhaps unexpected reason is said to be the popularity of Turkish soap operas which are hugely popular in the Middle East & North Africa and are attracting fans to the country!
In addition to this, the rise of Islam in Turkey is bringing in tourists from Arab countries. It is even reported that some mosques in Istanbul are preparing their sermons and teachings in English as well to attract visitors who practice or follow other religions but who still want to learn about the religious messages conveyed in the Islamic teachings. This inclusive approach is likely to bring even more visitors to historic cities such as Istanbul – although the beautiful beaches at Bodrum and Antalya do their part as well!
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