Israelis are in no rush to visit Turkey. Travel agents told "Globes" today that reservations for Turkish vacations since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's apology to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan before Passover were higher than over the past three years, but that few people actually packed their bags to spend the holiday there.
Gulliver Travel Agency CEO Amit Giorini said that the agency booked only 11 reservations for Passover in Turkey. "Notwithstanding the conciliation between the countries, this is a negligible figure. Israelis are still afraid to travel to Turkey. But while before the warming of relations we had one call, we're now talking about eleven reservations, most of which were spontaneous for Passover. We could say that this is the start of a trend."
ISSTA Lines (TASE: ISTA) VP marketing Ronen Carasso said that Turkey was not yet on the Israelis' tourist map. "100 Israeli Jews reserved a Passover holiday in Turkey through us. Although this is more than before the reconciliation with Turkey, it is still negligible."
Carasso added that in the peak year of 2008, 550,000 Israelis, mostly Jews, visited Turkey, compared with 90,000 Israelis, mostly Arabs, in 2012. "If relations with Turkey stay as they are, I estimate that 150,000 Israelis will go there. The big numbers won't return because Israelis have fallen in love with Greece, which was an alternative to Turkey even though it didn’t offer all-inclusive packages, because Israelis still don’t trust the Turks."
Carasso said that Turkey's real test will be next week, with the start of the summer vacation season.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 2, 2013
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