As the tourism revenues of Middle East nations such as Lebanon and Egypt fall sharply, Turkey is enjoying a strong boom in tourism as Arab tourists from ‘Arab Spring’ countries flock to Turkey although Israeli tourists no longer chose the country for travel.
Revolts and unstability issues across the Arab world are taking their toll on tourism in touristic destinations such as Lebanon,Jordan and Egypt, while the number of Arab tourists visiting Turkey has dramatically grown during recent years, making the country a favorite destination in the Arab world. Surveys show taht Arab tourist hold Turkey in high regard, the country is a role model for them in democracy and more free life style. It seems that many Turkish series shown in Arab countries also attract the interest of Arab tourists to Turkey.
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However the number of Israeli tourists visiting Turkey has also continued to decrease due to the tense political relations between Turkey and Israel, official data indicates. Only 61,950 Israeli citizens visited Turkey in the period from January to August this year, amounting to a whopping 27 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2010, according to statistics from the Turkish Tourism Ministry.
“The figure is destined to be down further for the rest of 2011,” analyst state. Tensions with Israel on the political front will hit the tourism sector and defense industry further but the loss of Israeli tourist have been balanced even compensated exceedingly by visiting Arab tourists.
Hasan Akçakayalıoğlu, vice president of the Turkish-Israeli business council, states that its a fact taht the drastic decrease in Israeli tourist numbers is directly linked with the ongoing political crisis and bad relations between Turkey and Israel.
The number of Israeli tourists visiting Turkey dropped nearly 60 percent from 2009 as the country’s total tourism figures keep on rising, whilw more tahn 1.4 million Arab tourists visited Turkey in the first 8 months in 2011, up from 1.2 million in the same period in 2010 and nearly 912,000 in 2009.
“We expect to reach 1.7 million Arab tourists in 2011,” said Mehmet Habbab, head of the Turkish-Lebanese Business Council.
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The revolt in Egypt that ousted leader Hosni Mubarak and the ongoing crackdown on opponents in Syria shifted tourists to Turkey, he said, also pointing to Turkey’s increasing daily charter flights to Middle Eastern countries.
“The Arab Spring has negatively affected the tourism industry in Jordan,” Shaher Hamdan, head of Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents. Arabs see Turkey as the ‘the Muslim America of the West’.
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