Turkish tourism falls under the blows of COVID-19 and Syrian War

The Coronavirus spoiled Turkish plans to revive tourism this year, and has hurt the Turkish economy, which is struggling against collapse and fall.

Turkey has been planning to attract 60 million tourists this year, hoping that the expected tourism revenues will save its economy, which is suffering from many crises.

Last year, Turkey attracted more than 52 million tourists, with a total return of 34.5 billion dollars, which contributed to the partial recovery of the Turkish economy, due to the crisis of the lira collapse in 2018.

Before the disease turned into an epidemic threatening world safety and security, Ankara marketed itself as an alternative stop for cruise ships from Europe heading to China.

The virus deprived Turkey of 2.1 million Iranian visitors last year, most of them flocking in March to celebrate the start of the Iranian new year.

Turkey also lost half a million tourists from China, according to figures released by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

According to the president of the Turkish Hotels Federation, Serori Chora Battir, the country was expected to witness a significant increase in the coming months in the number of tourists coming from Russia, especially since they are the most visited nationalities to Turkey, as their number last year 2019 reached about 6.887 million, followed by the Germans by 4,835 Million then the British about 2.5 million.

The political tensions between Russia and Turkey over the division of the Syrian cake, heralds a crisis between the two countries, threatening to deprive Ankara of nearly 7 million tourists, as happened in 2016;

The Turkish Hotels Association confirmed the decline in reservations nationwide amid a slowdown in February 2020 and indications of a further decline in March;

For its part, the Turkish Foreign Ministry tried to provide facilities to save tourism, as it decided to exempt the citizens of Croatia, Ireland, Malta, Portugal and Norway from the entry visa.

Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamis Aksavi said: The exemption decision has become effective, as of March 2, 2020, for travelers of the five countries coming for the purpose of tourism, and the tourists of the mentioned countries are entitled to stay without a visa for a maximum period of 90 days, during every 180 days.

On February 20, 2020, it was announced that citizens of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Bologna and the United Kingdom would be exempt from visa requirements.