www.travelwirenews.com Turkish Tourism Investors Association (TYD) head Oktay Varlier has said he is expecting the number of foreign tourists to visit Turkey to remain largely unchanged in 2007, according to published reports.
“It looks that we will not be able to exceed 21 million tourists (visiting) this year. Next year, we can at most attain this year's numbers if we do not embark on a very aggressive image campaign,†Varlier told Reuters.
He also said tourism numbers and revenues are projected to be lower about 5 to 6 percent in 2006 compared to 2005.
Turkey's key tourism sector was badly damaged last year by a bombing campaign by Kurdish separatists, a crisis over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which sparked riots across the Muslim world, and an outbreak of bird flu in the Southeast.
Tourism revenues are crucial for Turkey to finance its large current account deficit, which jumped 60 percent in the first nine months to $25.33 billion.
Turkey’s government has said it hopes for $20 billion in revenues from the tourism sector in 2006. Data for the third quarter released last month showed that revenues fell 8.9 percent in the peak tourism months July-Sept from last year.
Varlier said the first signals for this year did not hint at a rise. “Information we obtained from a London tourism fair shows that British reservations for next year are not higher than 2006,†he was quoted as saying.
Citing Turkish Daily News, tourexpi.com said Europe's second largest tourism firm Thomas Cook said late last year it saw stagnation in the German tourism market next summer. Germans are the biggest foreign tourist group visiting Turkey each year. According to estimates for 2006, there was a 22 percent decrease in the number of German tourists.
Varlier recommended for Turkey’s government to launch an image campaign to offset woes, which rivals Spain and Greece have benefited from. “The tendency to see Turkey as a Middle Eastern country (rather than a European country) has become too great. We need to show that Turkey has another face,†he said.
The image of Turkey as a backward conservative country at the border of a turbulent Middle East region has scared off many European tourists, tourexpi.com said. The Tourism Ministry's $70 million budget for image campaigns was not enough, he said, adding that an independent body, which includes representatives of the tourism sector, could on the other hand handle a successful image campaign.
A surplus of hotels on the country's Mediterranean coast was creating tough competition and was responsible for reducing prices to unreasonable levels, Varlier said. “In Antalya, 130,000 new rooms are available. A room is sold for nine or 10 euros in four-five star hotels. This is absolutely wrong and the tourism sector cannot survive with such prices,†the TYD head said. The businesses incur losses at such low prices even if they are able to sell the rooms to tourists. Varlier’s organization, the TYD, represents most big hotels and holiday resorts as well as many tour operators. |