Fewer Israelis visit Antalya
Photo: Avi Cohen
Sharp drop in Israelis' visits to Turkey
It's official: January of 2009 sees 61.5% decline in number of entries from Israel to Turkey. Significant drop recorded in visits by Russian, Ukrainian, German and South Korean tourists as well
Data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute on Monday pointed to a 61.5% drop in the number of Israeli tourists' entries to Turkey in January of 2009, compared to the same month the previous year.
It appears, however, that the main reason for the sharp decline is not the Israeli boycott on Turkey following Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan's recent remarks,
as sharp drops have been recorded in the entries to Turkey from other countries as well.
Only 6,700 entries from Israel were recorded throughout the month, compared with 17,501 entries in January of 2008.
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The entries of Russian tourists to Turkey saw a 33% drop, the entries from Tajikistan were down 64%, the entries from Ukraine dropped by 41.5%, the entries from South Korea plummeted by 60.4%, the entries from Romania dropped by 58% and the entries from Germany were down 13%.
Some 751,000 tourist entries to Turkey were recorded in January, a 4% drop compared to the same month in 2008.
According to data released by the Israel Airports Authority, five almost fully booked flights left Tel Aviv to Antalya on Sunday, compared with only one or two flights which headed to the Turkish port city on Sundays in January and early February.
Moreover, a significant drop was also recorded in the exits of Israelis to other destinations. For example, the exits to Thailand were down 45% and the exists to India dropped by 40% compared to January of 2008.
