Turmoil makes first impact on Turkish tourism
The direct effect on Turkish tourism from continuing anti-government protests in most major cities for a second week has so far been the cancellations of package tours and of conferences in the neighboring country – mostly in Istanbul – as well as in changes to cruise ship routes.
Costa Cruises in particular has chosen to replace the scheduled visit of one of its ships to Istanbul with a stop in Piraeus, while also changing its other Turkish ports of call. Major cruise operating companies have stated that they are monitoring developments in Turkey and revising their itineraries accordingly.
Several conferences are also said to have been canceled or put on hold.
Turkey’s tourism has also suffered from the bankruptcy in early June of Turkish-owned agency Travel GTI and the Sky Airlines carrier, which were active in the German market. Last year GTI had revenues of 300 million euros from approximately 600,000 customers.
The shutdown of Sky Airlines also affected other tour operators that had booked seats for Turkey for this summer season and are now seeking alternative solutions for their customers.
