Impact of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine on Turkey’s tourism

Turkey’s Tourism Sector is about to face difficulties in the coming summer season due to unexpected events, namely the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Regarding the issue experts have made following comments.

“Russia and Ukraine have a 30 percent share in the number of tourists coming to Turkey. 30 percent of the 29 million tourists who came to Turkey in 2021 were from the Russian and Ukrainian markets. If we consider that there were 25 billion dollars of foreign exchange income, we are talking about a market of about 7.5 billion dollars. According to the statements of both the Ministry of Tourism and TÜRSAB regarding 2022, the expectation was 42 million tourists and 35 dollars foreign exchange entries. Considering that about 30 percent of this comes from these markets, we are facing a very serious problem.”

The sector wants peace first of all

Another expert in the sector notes following: “As a humanitarian wish, we want peace at first. We are saddened by this. We will see that our country is very affected. We hope that peace will be achieved as soon as possible, people will get their freedom, and then this will be positively reflected in our business. We are observing/monitoring the situation.  During such crisis periods the importance of the domestic market has come to the fore again. Interest in the domestic market has particularly increased. Recently, hotels have been increasing their capacity. We are creating a number of campaigns related to this. The market that we can get the fastest reaction from, right now seems to be the domestic market. We hope that the conditions will come to a positive point soon. It will be a comfort to the whole world that 2 countries with a very high tourism potential for our country will achieve peace soon.”