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Senior tourism officials from Israel and Turkey met in a special session with the main aim to increase the flow of tourists from Israel to Turkey for the coming summer season.   This follows a 50 percent fall in tourist traffic during recent months.

About 40 hoteliers from Turkey were in Israel for their first visit in order to meet Israeli tour operators in the hope of finding a formula to increase the number of tourists traveling from Israel to Turkey. The Turkish ambassador to Israel, Namik Tan opened the conference and pleaded with tour operators from the two countries to make every effort to promote tourist traffic from Israel, badly damaged following comments made by the Turkish prime minister during Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

Almost 5 months has passed since the end of the Gaza operation and with the summer season approaching, tourist traffic between the two countries has collapsed. Many of the travel wholesalers are reporting a significant fall in room rates as a result of the current situation.  According to one of the wholesalers, the extent of the damage caused by not being able to fill rooms already committed to, is estimated at millions of dollars.  These same wholesalers admit that this situation is one that they have never encountered in the past.

Eyal Kashdan, general manager of Flying Carpet explained that 2008 was exceptional and that he was uncertain whether there would ever be such a good year for tourism to Turkey.  He added that for many wholesalers there was now the need to prepare for a new situation, something for which they have not made any plans.

Kashdan referring to the freeze adopted by the Israeli public on summer bookings said that it was not that they were waiting for holiday prices to be lowered. ”There is no problem filling up an airplanes at short notice, the situation is that the Israelis feel betrayed by the Turks and for us it is difficult to deal with this issue.”

The main message the Turkish hoteliers wanted to pass on was that Antalya is a safe destination for Israelis and that the political crisis is something that could happen anywhere in the world.  During conversations with journalists, the Turkish hoteliers emphasized that they are aware of the feelings of insecurity being felt by Israeli tourists and for now requested cooperation with the Israeli tour operators.

Some of the hoteliers also indicated that there had been a fall of 60 percent in the number of rooms bought in advance by Israeli wholesalers, this despite the large fall in the price of holidays for this coming summer. The hoteliers refused to comment on the statements made by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, dismissing the question with the answer “we do not understand it”.

During the press conference, representatives of the Turkish hotel association and high ranking Turkish hoteliers advised that the reason for their visit was a desire to show Israelis their commitment for touristic relations between Israel to Turkey.  When questioned about Israeli feelings of insecurity regarding Turkish reaction towards Israelis, they responded with the answer “I invite each and every one of you to come and feel the mood on the street for yourself.”