The first quarter of 2014 brought a bitter disappointment for Turkey's tourism. "I am not sure if Turkey recorded the run that they reckoned with, not only ex Austria but in general," said Klaus Pümpel, CEO of the TUI Austria Holding to T.A.I. the other day.
A glance at the official tourism statistics confirms this impression. On a global scale, in the first three months, there was an increase of 3.24 percent which equals 4.35 million more guests in the country on the Bosporus, but from OECD Europe (21 countries, including Germany and Austria), there were 6.77 percent less which equals 1.4 million less guests; the amount sank by 3.68 percent to 1.885 million in all of Europe.
Only from Russia and the CIS countries, a plus of 3.74 percent to 903,061 tourists was able to be booked.
The decline of Turkey's tourism was extreme in the first three months of 2014 from Germany and Austria. The Federal Republic recorded a minus of 16.7 percent to 466,059 Turkey travelers; the amount went back in Austria by a narrow fifth (18.1 percent) to 46,147 Turkey tourists. Switzerland also fell back with 9.9 percent to 32,336 guests.
The reasons for the limited development are unclear, whereas it is to be considered that Easter was in April this year. However, that is only a partial aspect because that was also the case in 2012, and the numbers in 2014 are significantly under the numbers from two years ago in the source markets Germany and Austria. For TUI Austria manager Klaus Pümpel, it's certain that, "The pressure of the product Turkey is currently not as high as everyone always expects."
Turkey's earnings from tourism still went up. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), they went up by 3.4 percent to approximately 4.808 billion U.S. Dollars (ca. 3.47 billion Euro) in the first quarter 2014. That is a bit more than the mentioned increase of travelers of 3.24 percent. Three-fourths of the revenue comes from tourists, a tersely fourth from Turkish citizens who live abroad.