Turkey welcomes back tourists, hopes to recoup losses

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — At the Ananas Hotel on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, the rooms were cleaned, the pool filled and the sun loungers distanced, as staff prepared to welcome back Russian tourists after nearly 20 months of pandemic-induced closure.

Hotels in Turkey’s popular Antalya region are ready to reopen after Moscow announced it was lifting flight restrictions to Turkey. Tourism representatives are hoping that their sector — a key component of the Turkish economy — can now recover some of its losses.

“We have been closed for about 20 months. We were quite pleased by the lifting of the flight restrictions by Russia,” said Murat Ozbalat, general manager of the Ananas Hotel in the resort town of Alanya. Russians make up about 80% of his guests, he said. “The additional gradual lifting of restrictions from Europe gives us hope for the remainder of the 2021 season.”

While many Turkish businesses suffered during the pandemic, tourism has been clobbered: In 2019, it brought in $34.5 billion and nearly 52 million visitors. In 2020, visitors dropped 69% and revenues fell to about $12 billion, according to the tourism ministry.

“We are talking about a ... sector that has been sitting idle for a year,” said Hamit Kuk of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies. “There is a loss of more than $20 billion.”

Turkey relies on tourism revenues for its foreign currency needs, at a time when it's been hit by double-digit inflation and a sinking currency, exacerbated by the pandemic.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said this year’s season is crucial.

“We will ensure that tourism professionals can utilize at least the second half of the 2021 season,” he said Saturday, inaugurating a hotel in Antalya. “We aim to get a much bigger share of the tourism cake” along...