The impacts of Turkey's foreign and internal policies on Turkish tourism industry

Tourism sector is one that gets affected by the political turmoils and foreign policy activities in the most rapid and extensive way. Statistical studies clearly show that the increasing perceived risks change the demand for tourism in considerable amount. Therefore, it is considered as necessary to examine Turkey's tourism from the perspective of foreign and internal politics of Turkey. From this viewpoint, the impact of tourism in Turkey depends on foreign and internal politics of Turkey was elaborated in this study. Various periods emerged as a significant period of relations between tourism and the domestic and foreign policies of the country. Significant increases have been observed in tourism revenues especially after 1980. After the coup d'état of 1980, Turgut Özal developed a foreign policy that underscored the expansion of Turkey's commercial and economic relations with the surrounding regions. Parallel to these developments, the number of foreign visitors, which were approximately 1.5 million in 1983, reached around 7.5 million in 1995. Then, the number of foreign visitors to Turkey increased to 37 million in 2014 and the revenue the Turkish economy derived from international tourism was between $ 45-47 billion as a result of following the policies of integration with the world and friendly relations with neighbouring countries. However, the number of visitors increasing until 2014 started to show a major decline after 2014. The number of tourists in Turkey fell by 35% down to 22,1 million in 2016. At this point, of course, both the foreign policies adopted and the terrorist incidents in the country can be shown as the reasons for this decline. The results of our study expressly revealed that foreign and internal politics of Turkey and tourism are directly connected.