Google – AFP, Nicolas Cheviron (AFP), 31 March 2013
Tourists
travel by boat during a tour on the Bosphorus in Istanbul on August 12,
2009 (AFP/File, Bulent Kilic)
|
ISTANBUL —
The air-clearing apologies were both made and accepted.
Now,
Turkey's tourism industry is holding its breath and hoping that Israel's
apology for a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla will translate into
a new love affair that will bring Israeli holidaymakers back to its beach
resorts.
"After
the apology, I think we'll reach 500,000 (Israeli) tourists this year,"
said Timur Bayindir, the president of the Association of Hotel Owners in Turkey
(TUROB), convinced that any grudges between the two allies were erased thanks
to last week's diplomatic breakthrough.
Tourists disembark from a boat
following a tour on the Bosphorus
in Istanbul on August 12, 2009
(AFP/File, Bulent Kilic)
|
"The
cooperation between the two countries will resume as before," Basaran
Ulusoy, the president of the Association of Travel Agencies in Turkey (TURSAB),
told mainstream daily Sabah.
Prior to
the spat, Turkey-Israel relations were warm, and vacationers from the Jewish
state were a common sight along the Turkish Mediterranean coastline. Among the
558,000 tourists that visited Turkey in 2008, one out of every 13 was Israeli,
making it their top holiday destination.
But
relations soured in 2009, when Israel unleashed its devastating 22-day
Operation Cast Lead on Gaza.
Turkey was
infuriated.
It accused
Israel of using disproportionate force in the conflict that cost the lives of
1,400 Palestinians -- half of them civilians -- and 13 Israelis, 10 of them
soldiers.
The
criticism did not go down well in Israel, where trade unions called for a
boycott of Turkey. The number of Israeli tourists in Turkey fell to 312,000
that year.
A year
later, relations between the two states hit rock bottom. Israeli commandos
staged a botched pre-dawn raid on the six-ship flotilla to Gaza headed by
Turkey's Mavi Marmara, in which nine Turkish nationals are killed.
People sit
at a restaurant in the
famous tourist sea side town of Foca
on May 5, 2009,
north of Izmir (AFP/File,
Mustafa Ozer)
|
That was
when Israeli holidaymakers really began to turn their backs on Turkey.
In 2010,
the number of Israeli tourists plummeted to 110,000, in 2011 to 79,000, and
last year it only slightly rebounded to 84,000.
The March
22 apology made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his Turkish counterpart
Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- and brokered by US President Barack Obama -- may
reverse the trend.
"Before
the apologies, we pushed very hard (for) Greece and Bulgaria, but since last
week we try to do our best to push Turkish products," Eyal Kashdan said,
the chief executive of Flying Carpet Travel, one of the market leaders in
promoting Israeli tourism in Turkey.
"Actually,
clients prefer the (Turkish) products, the hotels of Turkey... because of the
luxury of the hotels and the all-inclusive system, and they feel that the
Turkish cuisine is similar to the Israeli cuisine," he told AFP.
Local and
foreign tourists wait in line to
visit Hagia Sophia church, now a museum,
on
June 23, 2009 in Istanbul (AFP/File,
Mustafa Ozer)
|
His
reservations are echoed by Daniel Zimet, president of the Zimet Marketing
Communications agency which promotes Turkey in Israel.
"Israelis
shall be ensured 100 percent that there is nothing to worry about when going to
Turkey," he said, adding that Erdogan is still walking a fine line in
regards to doubts cast on whether the Israeli commanders of the flotilla raid
still risk judicial proceedings in Turkey.
"It's
still a way to go before things will be totally clarified between the two
nations."
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