Alarm bells toll for Turkish tourism sector over Russia crisis

Turkish tourism representatives have voiced concern after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov advised Russians on Nov. 24 not to visit Turkey, after Turkey downed of a Russian plane 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 a Russian passenger plane last month.

Russia's tourism agency then recommended the suspension of package holiday sales to Turkey.

"This is no good. We cannot lose the Russian market, which is the second largest source of Turkey's tourism sector. We have already lost over 800,000 Russian tourists 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 Ay?k. 

Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB) President Ba?aran Ulusoy expressed his wish to see Turkey and Russia in 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 President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an resolve the issue via dialogue," he said. 

Specifically, Turkey's seaside resorts are among the most popular tourism destinations for Russians. Russia is Turkey's second-largest number of tourist market after Germany, despite the relatively recent decline in the number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey due to economic problems in Russia. 

While 3.3 million Russian tourists visited Turkey in 2014, Turkey saw a decrease of approximately 25 percent in the number...