Gezi protests cost $55 mln euros to hotels

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Taksim was the district that was hit hardest by the Gezi Park protests. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK

The Gezi Park protests have cost Istanbul tourism 54.7 million euros, as almost 216,000 overnight stay reservations have been cancelled since the beginning of the incidents, according to a report revealed by Turkey’s Touristic Hotels and Investors Association (TUROB).

The incidents, which began on May 31, led many tourists to cancel their hotel reservations. The tourism sector needs public relations efforts to inform the tourists that the incidents “that are ordinary popular movements” are over and that the environment will be calmer in Istanbul, said TUROB President Timur Bayındır in a telephone interview with the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.

However, the report said 215,862 reservations were canceled between May 31 and June 17, on the basis of the information obtained from 298 hotels in Istanbul. The report divided Istanbul into three areas: 113 hotels in the Taksim-Beyoğlu-Şişli-Beşiktaş region (European side) suffered 51.3 million euros losses with 181,737 cancelations, 150 hotels in the Fatih-Atatürk Airport Airport region (European side) suffered 2.7 million euros losses with 18,582 cancelations and 35 hotels on the Asian side suffered 598,300 euros losses with 4,426 cancelations. In total, the Gezi Park incidents cost 54.7 million euros to the hotels, the report said.

Also, the requests for future bookings showed a 55 percent fall on average.