Already-beleaguered tourism sector in Turkey concerned about Suruç attack

A scene from Turkey's southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. (Photo: Today's Zaman, İbrahim Gaffar)

July 21, 2015, Tuesday/ TODAY'S ZAMAN / ISTANBUL

Turkish Association of Travel Agents (TÜRSAB) Adana regional executive board chairman Murat Şirin said the attack will have a profoundly negative impact on tourism in the region, in a statement on Tuesday.

“Tourism ensures employment in 52 different sectors. The attack in Suruç will surely affect the tourism sector. As representatives of the sector, our only wish is that such an attack does not happen again, as foreign tourists prefer to avoid destinations that are not peaceful,” Şirin said.

Şirin added that the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey possess great potential for expansion regarding cultural tourism and that the settlement process between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that is active in the region had stimulated tourism.

Skal Alanya term president and tourist agent Mehmet Nedanlı criticized the circulation of gruesome photographs of the attack, some of which were plastered on the front pages of Turkish dailies. “This will definitely affect tourism, but to what extent I cannot be sure. The publication of photographs by the media was not a good move. The world is very small and everything circulates quickly. I hope the effect won't be strong. This is a crisis that needs to be managed properly,” Nedanlı said in a statement on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Russia warned its citizens on Tuesday that any tourists in Turkey should not venture outside touristic areas. The statement comes at a time when the number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey has declined significantly, creating a nightmare for tourist agents particularly in the Mediterranean region of Antalya, who are expecting huge year-end losses. Russians have scaled back travel spending amid multiple crises that have resulted in a weak ruble.

Reports appeared in the Turkish press even a week prior to the attack indicating that the presence of ISIL in northern Syria along the Turkish border has made international visitors uneasy and prevented them from traveling to Turkey.

Monday's attack targeted members of a socialist youth group that had planned to repair children's facilities in the adjacent town of Kobani, which sits just over the border in Syria. The primarily Kurdish Kobani was seized back from ISIL by the People's Protection Units (YPG) early this year after months of fighting.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) have vociferously rejected claims that the government has supported ISIL, although it has taken a soft stance toward the expanding militant group, only recently taking action against it by carrying out raids on suspected members in İstanbul and elsewhere in Turkey. Pro-AK Party newspapers had run headlines claiming that the YPG, which has ties to the PKK, is more dangerous than ISIL.