Turkish Forum

Tag: Arab tourists

  • Arabian Gulf tourists and shoppers ring up the tills in Turkey

    Arabian Gulf tourists and shoppers ring up the tills in Turkey

    Rory Jones

    A huge influx of Arabian Gulf tourists to Turkey this year is expected to have dramatically boosted spending at the annual Istanbul Shopping Fest.

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    W The Blue Mosque at dusk in Istanbul. Daniel Acker / Bloomberg News

     

    Unrest in other Arabic-speaking countries and changes to Turkish legislation on owning property, helped to lead to a 71 per cent increase in Arab visitors to the country in the first six months of the year compared with a year earlier.

    That, in turn, propelled spending to rise 35 per cent from last year at the Istanbul festival, which ran for three weeks in June. The use of foreign credit cards at the festival rose 64 per cent.

    “I think hospitality, the same culture, the same religion, delicious foods, nice weather all attracts Arab tourists to Turkey and of course Turkish TV series are one of the main factors of this trend,” said Sedat Gonulluoglu,the cultural and information attaché for Turkey in the UAE.

    In May, Kivanc Tatlitug and Songul Oden, actors from the Turkish TV series Noor, launched the Istanbul festival in Dubai in a bid to attract Arab nationals from around the Gulf to the Turkish capital, which has more than 100 malls and smaller shopping centres.

    Having previously been unable to buy property in Turkey, Gulf investors can now snap up holiday homes after a law preventing from doing so was abolished this year. According to official statistics from the culture and tourism ministry, 140,000 Arab tourists visited Turkey from the Gulf region in June.

    Gulf tourists have been put off visiting other countries such as Egypt, Libya, Syria and Lebanon as unrest or political change and upheaval have caused uncertainty.

    The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have all warned their citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon in recent weeks.

    In June, the number of tourists to Turkey from the UAE jumped 54 per cent from a year earlier, while from Bahrain they rose 90 per cent, from Kuwait 64 per cent and from Qatar a 92 per cent.

    Like Dubai, Istanbul looks to have benefited from unrest in other parts of the Middle East.

    Many hoteliers in Dubai have reported occupancy levels of more than 90 per cent during Eid Al Fitr and record numbers of tourists have visited the UAE this year.

    “The cultural and religious closeness between Middle East and Turkey is apparent, plus Turkey’s unique geographical positioning makes it very desirable destination indeed,” said Mr Gonulluoglu.

    In total, Istanbul hosted nearly 1 million foreign visitors during the shopping festival, up 20 per cent on June last year.

    Like the Dubai Shopping Festival, stores in Istanbul offered discounts, some as much as 50 per cent, on purchases. This year, the city was packed with street parties, live entertainment and concerts.

    Shoppers spent 8 billion Turkish lira (Dh16.14bn) in 40 days last year at the festival and the organisers hope to have achieved sales of 7bn lira this year in just 21 days. The 2012 festival ran from June 9 to 29.

    via Arabian Gulf tourists and shoppers ring up the tills in Turkey – The National.

  • Big surge in GCC tourist traffic flow to Turkey

    Big surge in GCC tourist traffic flow to Turkey

    Issac John Khaleej Times

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    Turkey, one of global tourism hot spots, drew a bigger number of tourists from the GCC, particularly from the UAE, said the Turkish Tourism and Culture Office in Dubai.

    The Turkish Tourism and Culture Ministry’s official statistics for March 2012 show that there has been an increase of 86.81 per cent in the number of visitors from the UAE in 2011, while tourists from Bahrain increased by 54.38 per cent and those from Qatar by 102.30 per cent, Sedat Gönüllüoðlu, Cultural and Information Attache at the Dubai Turkish Tourism and Culture Office, said. The Turkish stand at the Arabian Travel Market, which closed on Thursday, hosted 30 participants, including Turkish Airlines, Rixos Hotels, and the Turkish Cultural and Tourism Office.

    This is in addition to an array of top ranking health and medical entities, spas, travel agencies and governmental institutions, said Gönüllüoðlu.

    “The Middle Eastern consumer base holds a great deal of importance within the Turkish tourism sector, with the number of visitors to Turkey from the region growing exponentially in recent years,” he said in a statement.

    Turkey has witnessed a long line of success in 2011, having ranked as the number one tourism spot by tourists all over the world and many of its cities being awarded must-visit status within the Middle East and Europe. “This is in addition to a massive influx of GCC visitors, far out-reaching numbers from previous years,” he said.

    According to Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuðrul Günay Turkey had a quite successful year in regard to tourism in 2011. More than 31 million tourists visited Turkey last year. “And according to official figures, our tourism revenues amounted to $23 billion. We have achieved a growth over twice the world average.”

    Gönüllüoðlu said Turkey was well prepared to participate at ATM this year with such a strong set of exhibitors that have much to offer this year’s visitors. “Turkey has much to showcase, including breath-taking natural vistas and a wide range of cultural and historical offerings. Turkey’s strong tourism infrastructure offers its visitors everything from modern luxury to state of the art health tourism venues, as well as exhibitions and conventions, unrivaled cuisine and exceptional value. All of this is wrapped up in unparalleled Turkish hospitality which makes it an unmatched tourism destination,” he said.

    He said Turkey has what it takes to become a global leader within the tourism industry. “This year witnesses a wealth of offerings from the Turkish front, which include unique and exotic sites that GCC residents have yet to experience.”

    via Big surge in GCC tourist traffic flow to Turkey – chicagotribune.com.

  • Turkey: tourism growing and profile of visitors changing

    Turkey: tourism growing and profile of visitors changing

    Fewer Germans and more Arabs. Sermons in English in mosques

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    (ANSAmed) – ANKARA – The Turkish tourism industry continues to grow and the profile of the average tourist is changing: most visitors are still coming from Europe, mainly Germany, but the number of tourists from Arab countries and regions like South America is on the rise. This fact was underlined by the Turkish agency Anadolu, which has analysed figures on the flow of incoming tourists over the first 11 months of 2011. This flow increased by 10% compared with the same period in 2010, rising to 30.26 million. Today Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay told Anadolu that he expects Turkey to host 32.5 million tourists this year, generating 24 billion USD in revenues.

    The impact of Turkey’s soap operas, which are very popular in North Africa and the Middle East, has raised the number of Arab visitors to the country. But an increase in visitors from the Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Norway was also recorded.

    The most popular tourist destinations are the beaches of Antalya, the history and architecture of Istanbul and the province of Mugla, with the beautiful seaside resort of Bodrum.

    Most tourists came from Germany (4.23 million from January to November, 400,000 less than the same period in 2010), followed by Russian tourists (3.4 million, a sharp increase from the 2.64 million recorded in 2009).

    The figures regarding Arab tourists are lower, but are in line with the rise of the Islam in Turkey, which seems to be freeing itself from the secular heritage of Ataturk. Today the Dogan agency reports that some historic mosques in Istanbul are preparing summaries in English of their sermons. Rather than to devout Islamic tourists, the initiative – already implemented in Germany and Australia – is aimed at visitors of other religions among the 20 thousand tourists who visit the Islam’s places of worship in Istanbul on average every day. Some of them are not only interested in the history and architecture of the mosques, they also want to learn about the religious message that they convey. To that purpose, 250 specialised guides will be trained, who will be able to answer questions on this issue in at least three languages. Istanbul remains a very attractive tourist destination: according to figures released yesterday by the city’s Culture and Tourism Direction, a growth of more than a million visitors (+16%) was recorded compared with 2010, when the Turkish capital was one of the three European Cultural Capitals. Also in Istanbul most visitors came from Germany, followed by tourists from Russia, the U.S., Italy and France. The most popular month was July (916 thousand visitors), the least popular was January (378 thousand). (ANSAmed).

  • Turkey Taps Arab World For Tourist Dollars

    Turkey Taps Arab World For Tourist Dollars

    The Ottoman-era Topkapi Palace, foreground, one of landmarks of Turkey's largest city and the country's cultural and economic capital, Istanbul (file photo)
    The Ottoman-era Topkapi Palace, foreground, one of landmarks of Turkey's largest city and the country's cultural and economic capital, Istanbul (file photo)

    Hard economic times in Europe is hitting the tourist industry in Turkey. But the country is enjoying a rather surprising dividend in the growing popularity of its prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan across the Middle East. It is proving an increasingly popular destination for Arab tourists.

    When he arrived in Cairo last month, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received the sort of welcome usually reserved for rockstars.

    Thousands of cheering Egyptians turned out to see Mr. Erdogan who has strongly supported the Arab Spring uprising and waged a diplomatic war against Israel.

    And, as a result of his popularity in Middle Eastern countries, Arab tourists are now choosing to visit Turkey.

    Here in Istanbul on the city’s main street, Istiklal cad, throngs of Arab tourists are now a common sight. Its predicted nearly 2 million Arab tourists will visit Turkey this year, nearly double last year’s number.

    For many, like Ahmet from Kuwait, the almost cult status of Mr. Erdogan was a reason why he chose to spend his vacation in Istanbul.

    “Erdogan , nice guy,” said Ahmet. “You know there is a relation between all Muslims. Because I heard about Erdogan I came here, nice country. Before I go U.K. and U.S., Malaysia.”

    Shops are adapting fast to this new trend. In this shopping mall, signs in Arabic have appeared everywhere next to the customary English one.

    And that’s not surprising. Arab tourists, many of whom are from oil rich countries, have a reputation for having much deeper pockets than many of their cash-strapped European counterparts.

    That means a major boost to the economy, according chief economist Emre Yigit from the financial trading house Global Securities.

    “If you go out on the streets in Istanbul, one can very safely say one has never seen as many Arab tourists in Turkey, and we know that overall number of tourists is also increasing rapidly in 2011,” said Yigit. “So it looks like its going to be a bumper year for tourism. And there is circumstantial evidence that the Arab tourists are relatively good spenders as well. So they are supporting the economy it appears.”

    Turkey is cashing in on its growing prestige, aggressively targeting Middle Eastern tourists.

    And, Arab tourism is more than a welcome boost for many of Istanbul’s hotels.

    At the CVK hotel in central Istanbul, Manager Edip Celick says Arab tourists are now the main source of customers.

    “European Union for crisis, no came from Greece no came from Spanish,

    Celick. “But all hotel 60 or 70 percent Arabic people stay in hotel. And the for Arabic people like the shopping mall and their first question [is] ‘Where is the shopping mall?’”

    But its not only shopping and Turkey’s growing regional prestige that attracts tourists. It’s also Turkish television soaps that air in several Arab countries.

    The highly produced programs, many with their comparatively risque story lines, by conservative Arab standards, are proving so popular that many Arabs come to visit the film locations.

    Aydar Sengec is guiding around the latest group of Arab tourists to visit one of Istanbul’s mansions on the shoreline of the Bosphorus waterway. The building features in one of the biggest Turkish TV hits in the Middle East. Sengec says they are overwhelmed by the interest shown by Arabs.

    “The visitors come from Saudi Arabia,” said Sengec. “All these people come from the Middle East also north Africa, from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. There are 3,000 people who came in two months. Especially woman. They like the characters. They like the story. Because the story is familiar, the same family relations.”

    One of those visiting is Kuwaiti Asla. She says they just can’t get enough of Turkish soaps and the lifestyle they portray.

    “We all love the actors the artists,” said Asla. “The Arab love too much this drama. You see the streets , nobody, no cars, all the house, all see the TV.”

    Analysts are predicting difficult economic times for Europe for some time to come. But Istanbul and the rest of the country are now hoping there will be further opportunities to exploit the deep pool of goodwill that observers say exist towards Turkey across the Arab world.

    via Turkey Taps Arab World For Tourist Dollars | Europe | English. VOA

  • At Turkish resort, Arabs fill Israeli rooms

    At Turkish resort, Arabs fill Israeli rooms

    By ROB L. WAGNER / THE MEDIA LINE
    10/15/2011 19:57

    While upheavals in the Middle East have increased Turkey’s popularity as a holiday destination for Arabs, Israeli tourists have vanished.

    isrANTALYA, Turkey – Old Town at dusk in this resort city on the Mediterranean coast is filled with hawkers selling jewelry, clothes and souvenirs. Shopkeepers easily transition from speaking Turkish to Russian, Polish and German as they spy tourists tentatively approaching their shops. Yet Hebrew, once among the languages mastered by bazaar sellers, is virtually non-existent.

    The annual number of Israeli tourists to Turkey has always been modest. However, resorts and shop owners recognize the potential for a greater Israeli presence on the beaches and in hotels. Israeli tourism to Turkey remains a fledgling enterprise, but the worsening diplomatic crisis between the two countries has damaged the progress made in recent years to attract more visitors.

    Israelis accounted for no more than 3% of the tourists visiting Turkey before 2009. Since 2009, only 0.05% of the total number of tourists visiting Turkey are Israeli, according to Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

    Whether Turkey can attract Israeli tourists to at least 2009 levels is the “million-dollar question,” Danny Zimet, spokesman for Turkey’s tourism ministry office in Tel Aviv, told The Media Line.

    “Turkey as a tourist destination is disappearing because of the constant problems between the two countries,” says Zimet, who is also a senior fellow at the Center for International Communication at Bar Ilan University at Ramat Gan.

    Zimet says that a record number of 560,000 Israelis visited Turkey in 2008. Turkey and Israel enjoyed warm relations until Israel launched its Gaza campaign against Hamas in December 2008. A month later, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos after saying “you kill people” to President Shimon Peres in a heated exchange.

    The very public confrontation had a chilling effect on the Israeli and Turkish tourism industries. Israeli tourism to Turkey fell dramatically to about 300,000 visitors in 2009. Zimet says the number of Israeli tourists to Turkey further dropped to 110,000 in 2010. The numbers decreased again to about 62,000 between January and August of this year.

    Relations between the two countries reached a breaking point when Israeli commandos killed nine people aboard the Mavi Marmara in May 2010 as the Turkish-flagged ship attempted to break the Israeli blockade at the Gaza Strip. The United Nations later determined Israeli armed forces used “excessive force,” but commandos also faced an “organized and violent resistance” from members of the flotilla.

    Last month, Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador and terminated all bilateral military agreements after Israel refused to apologize for the Mavi Marmara incident. Deteriorating relations between the two countries prompted Israeli tour companies to cancel charter flights to Turkey due to lack of demand. Turkish charter airlines, meanwhile, scaled back weekly flights to Israel.

    “Most vacations are done via charters,” Zimet says. “It is the most practical way to go on vacation. It is the most affordable way. Most tourists going to Turkey now are Arab Israelis who are taking Turkish Airlines or Israelis going to Turkey for business purposes.”

    Indeed, bilateral trade relations between the two countries appear to be untouched by the crisis. “There has been no clear impact on civilian trade,” Zimet says. Menashe Carmon, chairman of the Tel Aviv-based Israel Turkey Business Council, a non-profit organization with an extensive Israel/Turkey entrepreneurial membership, told The Media Line that business owners “don’t speak politics.” He says it’s business as usual for Turkish and Israeli business owners forging civilian bilateral trade agreements.

    “The private sector has been unaffected,” Carmon says. “The private sector operates under different conditions and different criteria. Our organization is still intact.”

    While the loss of Israeli tourists in the resort cities of Antalya and Alanya appear to have minimal impact on the local economies, their absence has not gone unnoticed. And whatever animosities exist between the two governments, the tension has not interfered with local commerce.

    “We don’t get many Israelis here, but we always welcome their business,” says Mustafa Saydam, who hawks day tours for Pacho Tours on the sidewalk of Ataturk Street in Alanya. “Politics is politics,” he told The Media Line. “It has nothing to do with showing people how to have fun.”

    Zimet agrees. “From my personal perspective of Turkey and what I am hearing from my colleagues, there is no obvious change [in attitude toward Israelis] in the civilian population of Turkey,” he says. “The Turks don’t have the same feelings as their president expressed.”

    An Israeli-Arab citizen vacationing with his family at Antalya’s Club Hotel Sera luxury resort told The Media Line the city has been his destination of choice for the past five years. The man, who spoke on the condition that his name not be published, said he has not come across any problems. “I am always treated well here, although I am not Jewish and I cannot speak for Israelis. But even so, like any tourist place, doing business crosses all cultural and religious lines.”

    But what is Israel’s loss may be Turkey’s gain. Turkey’s tourism ministry recently announced that an estimated 1.4 million Arabs visited Turkey so far in 2011, a jump from about 912,000 in 2009.

    Mehmet Habbab, chairman of the Turkish-Lebanese Business Council, told Agence France Presse recently that he expected the number of Arab tourists to hit 1.7 million by the end of the year.

    Part of the trend for Arabs to visit Turkey is the growing popularity of Erdogan in Gulf countries for his hardline stance over the Mavi Marmara incident. The success of wildly popular Turkish soap operas, long a staple on Arab television, has attracted more Arabs to Istanbul to visit the city’s sites. Traditional Arab tourist destinations like Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Syria are in upheaval. Turkey provides an alternative.

    In addition, the Turkish tourism ministry reported that an estimated 1.2 million French tourists traveled to Turkey from January to September in 2011, a 45% leap from the same period in 2010. France now ranks sixth behind Germany, Russia, Britain, Iran and Bulgaria in the number of tourists visiting Turkey.

    Zimet says that despite the crisis Tel Aviv’s Turkish tourism office “has no intention of closing its doors.”

    “Slowly, Israelis will be drawn to Turkey,” says Zimet. “Despite boycotting Turkey now, it’s still attractive. Israelis will come back once there is a better political atmosphere and a practical way to get there.”

  • Arab Tourists Flock to Turkey for a Dash of History

    Arab Tourists Flock to Turkey for a Dash of History

    Lured by Turkey’s soap operas, shopping, and historical heritage, Arabs from all over the Gulf are flocking to Turkey.

    The boom in Arab tourism over the past several years has been a boon for the country’s tourism sector, but the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East has put the brakes on this trend.

    Between 2008 and 2010, entries from the Arab world increased 62%, driven by the signing of numerous visa-free treaties with Middle Eastern states. Turkey’s popular soap operas, Istanbul’s mega malls, the so-called suitcase trade, and Turkey’s cultural and historical heritage drew nearly two million tourists from the Arab world in 2010.

    Arab tourists tend to spend more money and stay longer than their European and American counterparts, making them a particularly attractive market.

    Yahya Terzi, director of sales at Alharran Tours, attributes this to the fact that Arabs in general travel with their large, extended families.

    “They like to relax with family. When you calculate how many people they have in their family, they end up spending more money. They also like first class hotels and restaurants. They don’t tend to stay in three star hotels,” he told SES Türkiye.

    Arab tourists are also drawn by the sights and sounds they see every week on popular Turkish soap operas.

    “They want to see where their favourite soap operas are shot and they want to meet the actors,” according to Shirin Schade, managing director of Travelstyle.

    Tour operators noticed a significant jump in Arab tourists after Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s shouting down of Israeli President Shimon Peres at Davos in 2009.

    “In the summer after Davos, they [Arab tourists] started to come here because more people learned about Turkey,” Abdulkadir Duger, general manager of Alharran Tourism and Travel Agency, told SES Türkiye. “They enjoyed their first visit and more and more started to come.”

    While the incident surely won sympathy from the Arab Street, more significant has been the signing of numerous visa-free travel agreements with its Middle Eastern neighbours, which made it much easier for tourists and businessmen to visit Turkey.

    In a recent article entitled “Turkey’s ‘Demonstrative Effect’ and the Transformation of the Middle East”, Bogazici University professor Kemal Kirisci points out that tourism and Istanbul as a venue for various NGO and activist gatherings can play a role in promoting Turkey as a democratic, liberal and secular model for the Middle East.

    “Turkey’s visa-free travel policy also allows the possibility of reinforcing the image of Turkey formed through media,” Kirisci writes, pointing out for example, that 71% of Saudi women watch Turkish TV series.

    Despite the growing enthusiasm for Turkey, Sueda Albaker, business development and office manager of Albaker Tours, said that her company has seen a drop in tourists since the start of the Arab uprisings and Turkey’s turbulent relationship with Israel.

    “Arab tourists visiting Turkey have decreased because some of them couldn’t travel because the borders were closed,” Alakbar explained.

    The largest drop in the number of tourists comes from Bahrain, Israel and Syria, according to the General Directorate of Investment and Enterprises Department of Research and Evaluation. However, the number of tourists from Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia increased by at least 39%.

    Albaker blames the drop in tourists from certain countries on fears that if an uprising were to start while they are vacationing abroad, they wouldn’t be able to return home.

    When the Middle East begins to stabilise, many in the Turkish travel industry are confident Turkey will continue to be an enticing destination for Arab travellers.

    Schade thinks that new legislation in Europe targeting Muslims could help draw even more people to Turkey.

    “Turkey is a Muslim country. They can cover up the way they want and no one says anything,” he explained.

    The fact that countries like France have started penalising people for wearing the chador could dissuade them from visiting places like Paris, according to Schade.

    Friday, 14 October 2011

    Setimes