Istanbul: The first cancellation of tourists ordered to one of the cruise ships Ozkan Selcuk from the South Turkish coast came when the forest near the place he brought visitors who watched the fire.
A year after the Global Pandemic Covid-19 Pandemi destroyed the Turkish Tourism Industry, the worst forest fires in memory of living along the southern coast have provided fresh blows to the sector which formed around 5% of the Turkish economy.
In ten days, the fire has destroyed tens of thousands of forest hectares in the Mediterranean and Aegean provinces, eight people died and thousands of Turks and tourists had fled.
In Mugla Province, where the main tourist resorts of Marmaris and Bodrum are, at least 36,000 people must be evacuated, including from several cities of the coastal resort.
Relaxation of restrictions on Covid-19 travel this summer has led to the expectations of the rebound in the Turkish tourism industry, but for Selcuk and others in his area, forest fires set it up.
“I have two more reservations for Saturdays, but I don’t get a new order,” said Selcuk.
“I’m afraid that the fire will continue.
We wake up with ash falling in our homes and on our boat.” Firefighters have most of 200 forest fires broken in the last ten days, but on Friday there are still 12 blazes burned on MediterRenean coast and aegean, according to official data.
“There is no new order because of forest fires.
The bookings were canceled.
The hotels are also empty, with early check-out,” said Head of Bulbuloglu, Aegean Southern Union.
British decision on Wednesday to keep Turkey on Covid-19 ‘red’ list ‘for three weeks is a further blow for the industry.
Nuri Tourism Minister Ersoy said on Friday Turkey adhering to his target of 25 million visitors this year and $ 20 billion tourism revenue – still far from $ 34.5 billion in the 2019 pre-pandemic.
“We have the hope that British visitors will return, but That doesn’t happen, “said Bulbuloglu.
Most of the tourists visiting Turkey are English, followed by Russia and Germany.
In 2019 more than 2.5 million visitors came from England, according to official data.
In 2021, foreign arrivals were 5.7 million in the first half of this year while income reached $ 5.5 billion, official data showed.
Former Tourism Minister Bahattin Yucel said the government’s estimate was not realistic.
“Above the plague there is now a forest fire …
it took a long time for the South Aegean coast to recover,” he said.
Gonca Unah, whose family runs a guesthouse in the city of the coastal of Oren, hopes that a packaged July will start the recovery from the decline last year, but the small hotel is now empty after many residents are evacuated.
“We are fully booked for July and even reject guests.
Now people are just calling to cancel their bookings,” Umul said.