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Posted Jun 24, 2009 1:04 PM
Record Fall in Israeli Tourism to Turkey
Reported: 22:27 PM - Jun/24/09
(IsraelNN.com) The number of Israeli tourists visiting Turkey plunged by a record 60.5 percent this year following the countrys fierce criticism of Israel's war on terrorists in Gaza. Official data released by the tourism ministry Wednesday showed that only 64,200 Israeli tourists visited Turkey from January to May, compared to 162,600 people in the same period last year. A total of 558,200 Israelis had traveled to Turkey in 2008.
The drastic decline was blamed on Ankara's outbursts against Israel during the Gaza operations. A public spat between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli President Shimon Peres at a high-profile international gathering in Davos, Switzerland marked the climax of the rift. "The incident at Davos played a determining role in the Israelis' shunning of Turkey," Timur Bayindir, head of Turkey's Tourist Hotels and Investors Association, told Agence France Presse.
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