Israelis Stop Flocking to Turkey

by Benjamin Joffe-Walt
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Israeli tourism to Turkey down by almost half since Gaza war.

The number of Israelis visiting Turkey has dropped by 44% since the Gaza war caused a diplomatic crises between the two countries, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies has said.

Israeli visits to Turkey had boomed in the years preceding the Gaza war, with well over half a million Israeli tourists visiting the country in 2007 and 2008.

But the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies has reported that just over 311,000 Israeli tourists visited Turkey in 2009, a 44% drop from the 558,000 Israeli tourists in 2008.

"It is not for me to say the reason but you know the situation," Sunay Unlu, a researcher at the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies told The Media Line.

Despite recent reports in Turkish media that Israeli tourism was on the comeback, last month saw a 40% decrease in Israeli tourists relative to the figures for December 2008, when the Gaza war began.

"There has been a major drop in Israelis interested in Turkey," an Israeli airline official, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Media Line. "Because of all the [political] mess, it became quite clear that the Turks don't exactly love us, and most Israelis haven't forgiven them. As a result, the industry has completely changed. The country which last year was the most popular Israeli destination on earth is now a place we are simply not flying to."

Israel and Turkey have been engaged in a public diplomatic crisis since Israel launched a military operation in Gaza in 2008.

Accusations that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza led to a heated exchange between Israeli President Shimon Peres and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at an international conference in Davos.

Relations between the two former allies have deteriorated ever since and in October 2,000 Israeli workers’ unions declared a boycott against Turkey.

Following reports that Turkish travel agencies are cutting prices to stave off the loss of Israeli tourists, the unions have used the drop in Israeli tourism as a pressure tactic to attempt eliciting an apology from the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan for his alleged attacks on Israel.

Earlier this week representatives of 2,000 Israeli workers’ unions agreed at the Group Tourism Fair to withhold all vacation packages to Turkey should an apology not be forthcoming.

The boycott includes the workers' unions of the Prime Minister’s Office, Israeli airline El Al, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality, the Communications Ministry, Israel Railways and the national bus company Egged.

"Of course the main reason was the Israeli boycott," Turkish foreign ministry official told The Media Line on the condition of anonymity. "It's normal for things that happen in the political arena to affect tourism, I respect the Israeli people's decision and we expect for all this to end this year."

"But it's also a reflection of the economic crises," he said. "A lot of Israelis are now unemployed and there are many more Israelis afraid of losing their jobs. This affects their vacation decisions."

Despite the global economic downturn and the Israeli boycott, Turkey's tourism industry continued to see overall growth in 2009.

Turkey saw a 2.81% increase in the number of foreign visitors to the country in 2009, with just over 27 million tourists arriving throughout the year.

In a sign that Turkey was starting to see the end of the effects of the global economic recession, the number of foreign tourists was up last month by over 12% compared to the previous year.

Even at their peak in 2008, Israeli tourists ranked tenth in the number of entries to Turkey, and made up less than 2.5% of the country's tourists. German tourists make up 20% of tourists in Turkey, followed by England, Russia, the Netherlands and Iran.

Turkish tourism officials have argued that while the Davos incident led to a notable decline in Israeli tourism, Turkey has seen a notable increase in tourism from Muslim countries, where Erdoğan’s walkout was popular.

Source: Media Line.
Link: http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=27851.