The beach of Antalya is still empty at this time. Craftsmen and gardeners work in the hotel facilities and bring everything to a shine, before in a few weeks the big rush comes – hopefully. For how sensitive German tourists react, has been shown when Germany tightened its travel advice for Turkey.
Previously, Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu had threatened demo participants in Germany who support terrorist groups to intercept at the border when traveling to Turkey on vacation.
Dependence on political situation
A circumstance that hotelier Ali Kizildag is not happy about. „We are an industry that works completely independently of politics.“ That just does not work. There was a booking ding.
Ali Kizildag, the smart hotelier in a suit, is running the phone on his ear through the sprawling garden of his five-star hotel. Again and again he asks his guests if they feel comfortable. That some tourists in the meantime with Turkish reservations were restrained, of it he did not notice, he says, it starts from individual cases.
Remziye Zengin is chairwoman of the pro-Kurdish HDP in Antalya. She has other information. Many people currently do not travel to Turkey for fear, she says.
„This fear that the one who comes to Turkey ends up in jail is a burden on everyone, which has intimidated people.“
Influence on elections
On Sunday will be elected in Turkey. While it’s all about mayors and city councils, the AKP of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must fear that it will lose important cities like Antalya to the opposition. The remarks of the AKP Interior Minister Soylu play in it.
Muhsin Taşar, also chairman of the HDP in Antalya, assumes that a decline in the tourism industry could affect the whole city and thus also the election:
„Without tourism, no restaurants can open, without restaurants, the innkeepers can not earn any money, the waiters can not find work and can not earn anything without the hotels and restaurants, the suppliers can not earn anything.“
That would be like a domino effect, says Taşar. The Interior Minister’s statement has worried everyone in the tourism industry. „So everyone who lives in Antalya, maybe with the exception of some AKP people.“
