The Influence Of International Terrorism On Tourism In Turkey (Essay Sample)

Effects of Terrorism to the Tourism Industry in Turkey
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Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc480015461 \h 2Terrorism in Turkey PAGEREF _Toc480015462 \h 4Financial Effect of Terrorism on Tourism Demand in Turkey PAGEREF _Toc480015463 \h 6Impact of Terrorism on image of Turkey as a Destination for tourists PAGEREF _Toc480015464 \h 8Financial and Cultural Reasons Tourists in Turkey are Terrorist Targets PAGEREF _Toc480015465 \h 10Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc480015466 \h 12References PAGEREF _Toc480015467 \h 16
Introduction
The effects of terrorism activities on the tourism industry of any country can be huge. Such activities leads to massive unemployment, high rates of internal displacements, economic deflation and many other social and financial problems. The economic input from the tourism industry in many nations is high that any slump in the business is a reason for significant concern for the respective government administrations. According to (Gupta, 2012) the impacts of interferences with the tourism industry are left in numerous different industries that are related to tourism like the airline industry, hotels, and restaurants, mall, and shops that offer services to tourism and the related services.
International travel and tourism is a key contributor to the economic development of any nation, with an overall progress in world tourist arrivals overtaking the national income growth one out of every regular interval in recent years. Turkey recorded a constant growth in its tourism industry as per the year 2012. This growth marked a record for the country's tourism sector responsible for jobs and thirty percent of the world’s services exports as per (WTO, 2013). Financial receipts from the Turkish's tourism industry expanded by up to four percent in in the year 2012 achieving the US$ 35 billion mark.
This progress is equivalent to a four percent rise in the global visitor arrivals compared to the earlier years which was over ten million 2012 An extra US$ 219 billion was addeded in the financial records from the international passenger transport, contributing to the total revenues generated by global tourism in the year 2012 to US$ 1.3 trillion (WTO, 2013). However, there are numerous developing nations where the tourism industry is the main export industry thus boasting as their principal foreign exchange earner.
Industrialized nations are considered the biggest beneficiaries of inbound international travel. Despite the travel and tourism industry being a productive economic activity, it is faced with numerous ups and downs with the primary threat being socio–economic problems with terrorism being the biggest threat. Occasional evidence suggests that travelers and guests are in danger of being caught in the violent attacks due to terrorism activities (In Kumar, In Dhiman, & In Dahiya, 2015). By utilizing a time series technique referred to as transfer function, this paper focuses on the impacts of terrorism activities on the tourism industry in Turkey. The outcomes show that there exists a negative and growing impact towards the tourism industry in Turkey as a whole. The numerous terrorist attacks in Turkey have significantly contributed to the continuous and rapid decrease in the number of tourists that visit the nation. As from 2014, the country has witnessed numerous terrorist attacks that have affected the country’s travel and tourism industry negatively with a reduction of over 3 million foreign tourists over the last three years (Bal, & Laçiner, 2014).
Terrorism in Turkey
Turkey is a country with Spectacular architecture, one with a rich and ancient history, attractive beaches and a lively urban nightlife that has long attracted tourists from all over the globe. However, after a current spate of violence and terrorism in the nation, its tourism industry, an essential piece of the country's economy faces a significant threat. As per the statistics from the World Travel and Tourism Council in 2014, tourism in Turkey is responsible for more than 12 % of the gross domestic product which is much higher than the global average that averages at 9 %. Recent bulletin by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows the huge drop off in the number of visits by outsiders since January 2015 up to November 2016.
The ISIS, an Islamic terror group, has conducted the attack on the New Year’s Eve in an Istanbul nightclub that led to the death of 39 individuals, the attack on Istanbul airport that killed more than 40 people and many other deadly terror bombings in the country in the year 2016. On top of these terror assaults, the country experienced a failed government overthrow in July 2016 that left more than 200 individuals dead, as indicated by The Associated Press. In the mass shooting at the Reina nightclub on New Year's morning, a significant number of those murdered or wounded were outsiders from a differing cluster of nations including France, Israel, India, Belgium, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Tunisia, as indicated by Turkish media.
The blast in Istanbul's most prominent vacation destination on the twelfth of January 2016 negatively affected the rate at which tourist will visit Turkey both in the short term and long term. The explosion that occurred at the Sultanahmet locale, close to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, a major tourist spot resulted in the death of not less than ten individuals and injuring more than a dozen others. The fact that the terrorist attack happened in the center of Istanbul with numerous tourist from Germany and Norway falling victims of the explosion resulted in extended travel and flight restrictions towards Turkey for over six months. Almost all the European nations and other countries across the world were forced to take preventative measures to protect and secure their citizens from traveling to Turkey and precisely the affected areas (Korstanje, & Skoll, 2013).
With the recurrent terrorist attacks on tourist spots, the tourism industry and related business in Turkey have been on the losing end in recent years. The attack in October 2015 where two suicide bombers detonated their life jackets in the midst of activists in Ankara that resulted in the killing of over 100 people profoundly affected the tourism industry in Turkey. With the Islamic state a terror group based in Syria and Turkey border claiming responsibilities, it resulted in further restrictions on visa allowances and tightening of border securities. The main reason as to why the Turkish nation has witnessed recurrent attacks and insecurity cases is as a result of the existence of numerous terror groups such as the ISIS, Kurdish Splinter Group, and the insurgents from the PKK who recruit radicalized individuals from all over the world to fight for the Kurdish Autonomy.
The Turkish economy is being faced by the numerous terror attacks and geopolitics pressures as from the year 2015. AS of the year 2014, the Turkish tourism industry generated a record $35 billion in revenues alone, by the third quarter of the year 2015, this tourism profits fell by over four percent to about 12.29 % (Kucukaltan, 2016). In 2014, Turkey was ranked as the world's 6th most appealing destination to visit in the process recording over 34.8 million guests in the form of tourists. Most tourists who visited Turkey were from Russia with about 4.5 million annually. Following the Imposing of Sanctions on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine in the year 2015, the number of tourists visiting Ukraine declined drastically in the process affecting the Turkish Outbound figures towards the negative. Peaceful countries that border Turkey also fastened their travel and border restrictions following the Suicide bombing that massacred more than thirty individuals in the Turkish town of Suruc July 2015.
By the end of the month of July, the southern coastline of Turkey, the entertainment joints, and most hotels and restaurants in Istanbul are always busy and filled with foreign visitors as the tourism season peaks. But this is not the case that has been witnessed since the country has experienced turmoil that has negatively affected the tourism industry recording the worst statistics since the early 1990s. Terrorist attacks and constant political instability have resulted in tourist making an unprecedented switch away from Turkey leading to a continuous fall in the international tourist arrivals as from 2014 to 2016. This trend has been witnessed continually in the process affecting the travel industry resulting to low revenues and wages in this sector (Korstanje, & Skoll, 2013).
Financial Effect of Terrorism on Tourism Demand in Turkey
Seddighi et al. (2011) and Stafford et al. (2012) explain how terrorism activities may bring about political instability, which in most situation results in the deterioration and disappearance of foreign visitors in the popular tourist destinations. AS early as the 1990s, there exist statistic data that confirms that terrorist attacks results to security concerns that in turn negatively affects the tourism demand designs that led to an increase in the cancellation rate of travel bookings and holiday plans specifically after the numerous attacks that had been witnessed in Turkey Istanbul city (Sackett, & Botteril, 2016). Even before the deadly bomb attack in Istanbul airport in late June 2016, the country had already witnessed a drastically reduction in the number of foreign tourist entering Turkey via airports with a decrease growing to about 21% by the end of 2016. According to the conclusion by (Seddighi, & Theocharous 2011), these terrorist incidents in Major cities in Turkey has resulted in the massive reduction in the number of tourists visiting Turkey by millions. This is further evidenced in the number of tourists visiting Turkey as at 201...