Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
81
point of 20 million in 2005. Tourism from European markets was badly affected, with
arrivals from the Netherlands declining from 250,000 to 100,000 over this period.
 2011 to Present: Syrian Civil War – The ongoing civil war in Syria is part of a wider
wave of unrest starting from the 2011. The Syrian crisis has a direct impact on Turkey
in more than one way. Besides the problem of refugees that it has to deal with, the
country recently was a victim of terrorism partly related to the Syrian conflict. Although
Turkish tourism has proved resilience to several crises including social unrest and
violence, the impact of repeated terrorist attacks and the upheavals of the last two years
have proved to have a significant negative impact on tourism.
 2015: Downing of RussianWarplane – In November 2015 a Russian Su-24 attack craft
was shot down by a Turkish F-16 in the Turkey-Syria border area. Russia responded by
applying economic sanctions on Turkey, including a travel ban to Turkish holiday
destinations. However, the number of Russian tourists to Turkey in 2014 was 4.5
million, which is only 40% of the total decline in arrivals from 2015 to 2016, indicating
that other factors such as the frequent terrorist attacks, the political uncertainty and the
image of the country played a major role in the depression of the sector in 2016. As the
conflict between Russia and Turkey nears a resolution, it is expected that in 2017
Russian visitors will return. Whether that will be enough to restore the tourism industry
will only be determined at the end of the 2017 tourism season (Ozen, 2016).
 2015: Various Terrorist Attacks - In 2015 the number of terrorist attacks of various
intensities and source had a direct impact on tourism in Turkey which extended to the
following years. In general terms tourism recovers more quickly if terrorist attacks are
not repeated (as discussed in Sections 1 and 2). But in 2015, the attacks were frequent,
therefore the impact was felt with more than 30% fall in the number of the European
visitors who comprise over a half of the international arrivals to Turkey (Lowen, 2016).
 2016: Coup Attempt – A coup attempt by terrorists took place in Turkey on 15 July
2016.
Source: Cokcevik, pers. comm. 2017
4.2.3. Recovery from Crises in Turkish Tourism
Up to 2015, the Turkish tourism sector demonstrated resilience in recovering from the various
crises that had occurred over recent decades, although they may have prevented the country
from maximising its full potential as a tourism destination. However, the combined impacts of
the Syrian Civil War and the 2016 attempted coup d’état have combined to form the worst crisis
experienced so far, impacting on perceptions of Turkey and contributing to a significant (39%)
downturn in visitor arrivals in 2016 (Cokcevik, pers. comm. 2017).
The wider regional crisis has also had a cumulative (negative) impact on the image of Turkey in
the country’s main source markets, including its proximity to Syria. In particular, terrorist
activities have raised concerns about safety and security generally.