Foreign tourist arrivals were 1.54m in February, up 186.5 percent year on year, according to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. January-February foreign tourist arrivals increased by 169% year on year to 2.82m. In February, the most visitors came from Bulgaria, Germany, Iran, Russia and Iraq, respectively.

The closure of borders, travel restrictions and other prohibitions due to the coronavirus epidemic that started in China in 2020 and spread all over the world caused the pandemic effects of tourism to be felt and the collapse effect. The spread of vaccination and the mitigation of the effect of the pandemic with the year 2021, as well as the loosening of the bans, enabled tourism to experience a significant revival in the summer season. Accordingly, there was a significant increase in the number of foreign visitors in 2021 in the distribution by years, approaching 2019 levels. In the distribution by months, it is seen that in the first two months of 2022, the figures for the period of January - February 2020, when the pandemic has not been declared yet, are below. Current reservations include some countries' announcements of concerns about the war with Russia and Ukraine, and virus restrictions due to increased cases of the Omicron variant.

When the effect level of the retrospective political dynamics regarding the current Russian crisis is analyzed, it will be necessary to compare with the reductions in important breaking times such as the 2014-15 Russia-Ukraine crisis, the 2015-16 Russian plane crash and the diplomatic crisis, the 2016-17 terrorist attacks and the 2020 Covid epidemic.

Between 2014-15, the number of Russian visitors decreased by 18.5%. However, the real decline occurred between 2015-16, when the plane crisis with Russia and relations became strained. While there was a 76% decrease in 2016 compared to the previous year, the share of Russia in total tourism revenues decreased to 3%. With the normalization of relations, it was restored in 2017, and there was a serious base effect in this period. The decline in 2020 is already related to the pandemic and there is a general negative impact.

For Ukraine, on the other hand, there is no significant break in years. In 2016, there was a significant proportional increase of 47%. Its share in our tourism revenues peaked that year.

Kaynak: Tera Yatırım
Hibya Haber Ajansı