Turkey tourism only to get worse

Latest report showed, in October, tourists' arrival in Turkey dropped -4% from same time last year. Increased violence in Middle East, political crisis (now solved) and economic slowdown (especially in emerging markets) have contributed to the drop.

However, things are likely to get much worse from here. Increased frictions in relation between Turkey and Russia is all to blame for.

Recently Turkey downed a Russian military jet close to Turkey's border over air space violations, which Russia denies and Russian president Vladimir Putin warned of serious consequences. Foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, advised citizen of Russia against travel to Turkey.

For Turkish Tourism it means quite some disaster. For last two years, Russian tourists topped the list in numbers, visiting to Turkey. This year due to recession in Russia, numbers have fallen but still around 3.5 million, only second to Germany, contributing 11% of total tourist arrival.

Russians are proud and patriotic people, so turkey tourism is sure to get big hit next year. The numbers of arrival could drop more than 50% by next year, which would mean lost billions of Dollars for tourism industry.

Turkish Lira has lost more than 3.5% in last one week, trading at 2.924 per Dollar.