According to Turkish Hotels Association (TUROB) data, hotel occupancy dropped by 6.2% to 47.6% in January 2016 compared to the corresponding period in 2015, recording the sharpest drop among European countries, FTNNews reported.
Istanbul, Turkey’s most visited city, experienced double-digit drop in January 2016 compared to the same month in the previous year (11% to 48.7%). Average Daily Rate also dropped by 5.2% in January from €102.40 to €97.10.
Turkey’s travel industry has taken a beating in the past year, due to an ongoing conflict with Kurdish fighters and terrorist attacks and other violence presumably orchestrated by the so-called Islamic State. The government in Ankara has blamed Kurdish separatists for the recent bombings in public places and roads that has killed and wounded hundreds.
Things took a turn for the worse last November when Turkey downed a Russian fighter jet on its border with Syria, prompting the Kremlin to impose painful economic sanctions on Ankara and ban its citizens from traveling to the Mediterranean country.
A number of bombings in subsequent months, which targeted crowded tourist areas in Ankara and Istanbul, killed dozens of people with German tourists making up most of the casualties. Russians and Germans are the top two contributors to Turkey’s tourism sector, making up nearly 10 million, or 25%, of annual arrivals.
