Turkish Economy On The Decline, As Number Of Foreign Tourists Decrease.

After experiencing more than $5m losses in 2015 alone due to increased security risks, the situation is gradually getting worse as Turkey has seen it's foreign visits for the month of February down to 1.2 million from it's 1.38 million

of last year representing a drop of 10 per cent

This is a bad development for a country whose economy extensively depends on tourism for revenue . Statistics show that Turkey generates as much as $30b cash inflow from around 42 million tourists every year. 

One of the things that have made Turkey a tourism abode, is it's seaside resorts , historical sites and it's Aegean and Mediterranean Sea coasts. In 2011 alone , Turkey welcomed more than 31.5 million foreign tourists , ranking 6th in the world's most popular tourist destinations in the world . 

Most of the tourist sites are located in Antalya which is known as the Turkish tourism capital. Resorts that abound in Antalya include Bodrum Fethiye, Marimaris and Kusadasi to mention a few. Also worthy of mention is Istanbul which is the capital of the Ottoman and Byzantine Empires and blessed with the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque), Hagia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace. 

One of the mitigating factors against tourism in Turkey is the lingering problem between Turkey and Russia, after Turkey downed a Russian plane last year. This has restricted the movement of Russians in the country who usually came in large numbers with Russia the second highest foreign tourist country to Turkey accounting for more 3.7m visitors to Turkey in 2015. While the likes of Germany, United Kingdom and Georgia had 5.5millon, 2.6 million and 1.9 million foreign visitors to Turkey respectively . 

Another problem is that Turkey Borders Syria, which is presently in ruins after a long lasting war. Also, just last month, Isreal advised it's citizens in Turkey to exit the country while placing Turkey in the list of it's unsafe destinations  due to the January bombings that killed 13 German tourists, three Israeli's and one Iranian tourist . 

With all these restrictions, Turkish authorities have to do something quickly in order to avert distorting the economy as a result of the decline in tourism .