Turkey enjoys tourist boom amid sharp drop in currency

ISTANBUL — Tourists have returned in droves to Turkey, helped this summer by the sharp fall in the value of the Turkish lira following economic uncertainty and a rift with the United States.

The evidence is abundant. A British firm, for example, managed to book 200 people — up from 15 last year — for a swim between Turkey’s European and Asian shores.

Turkey’s plunging currency and the dispute with the United States have fed fears of economic hardship. The tourism sector, though, battered by mass casualties in bombings and an attempted coup in 2016, is again a bright spot — and source of vital foreign currency — for the troubled economy.

Nearly 19 million people — 16 million of them foreigners and the rest Turks living abroad — visited Turkey in the first six months of this year, a 29 per cent increase over the same period in 2017, according to the government. Tourism revenue rose by a similar percentage to more than $11 billion.

In August, Turkey’s culture and tourism minister tweeted photos of his visit to coastal Antalya.

“We had the chance to chat with foreign visitors who have chosen our heavenly country,” said the minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.

There was always a lot to seduce the tourist in Turkey: sun and sand, archeological treasures, cuisine, shopping. Now violence and political turmoil have ebbed, and the lira, which hit record lows against the U.S. dollar, is giving foreigners more value for their money.

SwimTrek signed up its maximum of 200 swimmers for the 4.5-kilometre Hellespont race in Turkey’s Dardanelles strait on Thursday.

Swimmers said the race was a “bucket list” event and currency considerations aren’t “necessarily” at the top of their thoughts, said Georgie Oliver, marketing manager at SwimTrek.

A calmer security backdrop is enticing the tourists back and it’s a boon for Turkey.

Summer is the high tourist season, and many hotels on the Aegean and Mediterranean seas are reporting full occupancy, thanks partly to Turks vacationing during Eid al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice.”

Even if Turks are unnerved by their currency crisis, many bookings were paid long ago, when the lira was stronger. Some chose to take a local holiday rather than spend more abroad.

Zaytung, a satirical website in Turkey, posted a piece lampooning the masses of city-dwellers who flock to the coastal resort town of Bodrum at this time of year.

It quipped that people seeking to shed urban stress in Bodrum will only end up bumping into each other in the street “as they are used to,” wait for at least one hour for a table at restaurants, fight for sunbeds and pretend to have fun while taking selfies before returning to the city in droves at the weekend.

And Hurriyet, a Turkish newspaper, posted photos of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, on a pleasure boat in the Bodrum area.

Another prominent visitor to Turkey was Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who took time out during an official trip in July to tour Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace, once home to Ottoman sultans.

Some hoteliers are relieved that tourism is picking up, but still wary about the possible impact of the war in neighbouring Syria, a conflict in Turkey with Kurdish rebels and a continuing government crackdown following the attempted coup.