After four people, three of them Israelis, were killed, and 39, including 10 Israelis, were injured, in a suicide bombing on Istanbul’s popular Istiklal Street Saturday, Israeli travel agents remain surprisingly optimistic about the choices their clients will be making with their vacation shekels this spring and summer seasons.
“We are on the seam line between the season of three weekly flights and the season of two to three daily flights to Turkey, with thousands of vacation packages already booked in advance for Passover,” Ilan Shalev, who manages commercial partnerships for tourism firm Kavey Hufsha (Heb: vacation lines), told Ma’ariv Sunday. Shalev stressed that his company works mainly with Mediterranean coast resorts like Antalya, renowned as the Turquoise Coast for its blue waters, a safe distance from politics and terror threats. “I estimate the Israeli tourist might avoid Istanbul as a destination in the near future,” he conceded, “but, based on past experience, we don’t anticipate a low in Israeli tourism to Turkey as a whole.”
Israeli tourism to Turkey has only been revived about two years ago, following the conflict between the two countries over the 2010 Gaza flotilla armed clash that resulted in several anti-Israel Turkish activists being killed by the IDF following violent clashes onboard the ship Marmara. Last year Turkey became the third most popular destination for Israelis, according to the Airport Authority, with about 700,000 annual travelers.
Shalev insisted that “there’s nothing new about the Kurdish underground’s attacks against Turkish cities, and only last week there was a big attack in Ankara— which was not followed by any wave of cancellations.” He admitted that the fact that so many Israelis have been killed and injured this time might have a more serious impact, but, nevertheless, he suggested “the Israeli who chose to vacation this Passover in Antalya, for instance, understands the two are not connected.”
Shalev believes Israelis are more likely to cancel their vacation over issues of national pride — which is why they boycotted Turkey as a destination while Turkish leader Erdogan was reviling Israel publicly. “But Israelis are used to a shaky security situation at home, too.” He also claims the Turkish government invests a lot in defending its tourist locations, but admits that “even they can’t secure every street corner.”
On Sunday, Israel’s counter-terror bureau in the Prime Minister’s office issued a travel warning urging Israelis to not visit Turkey at the moment, raising the threat status from Level 4 to a Level 2, indicating a concrete threat of attacks on Israelis.