Russian tourism in Turkey fell by 90% since last year
Only 41,000 Russian tourists visited Turkey in May 2016. This is 91.82% less than in the last month of spring 2015, as indicated by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Usually, the flow of Russian tourists to Turkey increases dramatically in May. For example, in 2015 the country was visited by over 501,000 Russians, in 2014 – by almost 695,000. However, the bans on selling trips and the cancellation of charter flights has led to an almost complete block of tourist flow. In May 2016, Russians made up only 1.65% of the total number of tourists visiting Turkey, while in May 2015 this figure was 13.17% and in May 2014 it amounted to 17.82%.
Since the beginning of 2016, 138,000 Russians have visited Turkey. This is nearly 83% less than during the same period in 2015 (when there were about 802,000). The share of Russians in the total flow of foreigners arriving in Turkey accounted for only 1.66%.
In January-May 2016 Turkey was visited by 8.3 million foreigners, which is 22.93%, or 2,469,000 people less than during the first five months of 2015. At the same time, the number of arriving tourists has decreased from almost all countries: there were 25.49% less Germans, 31.5% less French, 22.24% less British, 49% less Spaniards, and 50% less Belarusians.
Kosovars, Lithuanians, Albanians, Georgians and Ukrainians, however, travelled more to Turkey. The number of tourists from Ukraine in comparison with 2015 has increased by almost a third, but the proportion of Ukrainians in the total number of tourists in Turkey is barely 3%.
On 28 November 2015, a few days after a Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down by the Turkish military near the Syrian-Turkish border, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on measures to ensure the national security of Russia and the use of special economic measures against Turkey. The document required Russian tour operators and travel agents to stop selling permits and tours to Russians, which included visiting Turkey, as well as banned all charter flights between the two countries.