Turkish Tourism Industry Suffering

Turkish hotels have cut staff by 40 percent and some have closed their doors for the winter, according to a new report by the Hotel Association of Turkey. The tourist industry usually adds about $30 billion to GDP each year. But a series of terrorist attacks, including one on Istanbul’s airport, and a failed coup in July, have kept many tourists away. Turkey has long been popular with Russians as well, who have flocked to Turkey’s beaches during the winter, but tourists stopped coming after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane over Syria last week. Ties were formally restored in August and Turkish officials hope Russian tourists will return this winter. The report on tourism found that average hotel occupancy rates were just over 50 percent for the first ten months of 2016. Average room rates have dropped, and some hotel owners are unable to pay loans they took to buy the hotels.