Antalya will lose in 2015 to $ 5 billion because of the decrease of Russian tourists' traffic

Reducing number of Russian tourists visiting the Turkish province of Antalya, will lead to a loss of $ 5 billion by the end of 2015, reports on the results of 2015, according to BGN News. At the same time Turkey's overall revenue losses in the tourism sector could reach $ 10 billion. According to the publication, in the first nine months of this year the number of tourists from Russia to Antalya decreased by 25% compared to last year. "The representatives of trading in Antalya said that their sales were down by about 50% this year compared to the last year," quoted as representative of the Association Professional Hotel Managers (POYD) Ali Kyzyldaga. Turkish experts call among the factors influencing the decline in tourist traffic, the fall of the ruble and the fact that the Russians must have a passport to enter Turkey. "Tourism in Turkey has grown many times over the past 25 years. But now we are faced with difficult times because of the economic problems in Russia, problems of security, especially after the" Arab Spring" in the region and the crisis in Syria" the chairman of the Federation of Hoteliers of Turkey Osman Ayyk said. According to the Mediterranean association of hoteliers and tourism workers (AKTOB), for eight months of 2015, Antalya was visited by 2 million 170 thousand Russians that is by 617 thousand people less than in the previous year (-22.1%). In total from January to August, the country's was visited by 2.78 million Russians. In the same period of the last year, there were 3.5 million, a fall in tourists' flow from Russia since the beginning of the year was about 21%.