in his Antalya hotels, Hakan Saatcioglu hopes his rooms will soon be filled with tourists again after the temporary guests were transferred elsewhere by the government.
But tourism has been slow to rebound following the tremors that devastated swathes of Turkey’s southeast on February 6, killing more than 50,000 people, flattening towns and cities, and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. A drop in new bookings means less revenue for travel professionals and the economy at large, said Olivier Ponti, ForwardKeys’ vice president for insights.
Despite strong bookings recently across the travel sector in Europe as a whole, Turkey has not been able to regain momentum. Kasim Zoto, chairman of the Armada Hotel in Istanbul, said he was “on edge” ahead of the elections as the hotel had offered free cancellations up to within 48 hours of check-in and expect that could be used.
A potential return to expected pre-earthquake travel figures is likely after elections wrap up, tourism officials said, especially as peak summer travel demand to Turkey ramps up.Since the epicenter of the quake was in the southeastern, inland city of Kahramanmaras, no coastal resorts were affected, a factor that raised hopes for recovery, driven by a surge in Russian tourists.