Hoteliers in Antalya concerned about fallout of Gaza war

ANTALYA

The tourism industry in Antalya is feeling the pinch from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine with hoteliers voicing concern over tourist arrivals.

Hotel operators in the city, one of Türkiye’s major holiday destinations, said they were experiencing reservation cancellations from the Middle East market and that they were concerned about 2024.

Last week, Israel's National Security Council called on all Israelis in Türkiye to leave as soon as possible.

Between 2017 and 2022, more than 600,000 Israelis visited Antalya, while since the start of 2023, around 250,000 tourists from Israel vacationed in the city.

After the warning from the Israeli authorities, only a few Israelis stayed in Antalya while most of them left.

The war between Russia and Ukraine already dealt a blow to the tourism industry, said İsmail Çağlar, the general manager at a five-star hotel in Antalya.

“Now, another war in the region started. The normalization process between our country and Israel has had a positive impact on our industry. This year, nearly 500,000 guests from Israel, Jordan and Lebanon came to Antalya,” he said.
“It [the conflict in Gaza] will definitely affect the next season negatively.”

Çağlar does not expect tourism inflows from European countries to decline due to the conflict.
Hoteliers in Antalya lost tourists from Europe due to the Ukrainian war, he added.

“We were trying to compensate for those loses to some extent with visitors from the Middle East market. Now, we have this problem. We need to work to see if we can find new markets,” he said.

Presently they have no Israeli guests at their hotel, said Muhammet İnci, another hotelier in Antalya.

Israelites had booked rooms at their hotel for March and April next year, he said. “After the latest developments, we have started to receive cancellations,” İnci added.