Tourism to Turkey ‘back to normal’ — official

AMMAN – Tourism to Turkey is "almost back to normal" among Jordanians after a brief slowdown following the failed coup in the country, an industry representative said on Thursday. 

Tourism agencies are organising their regular packages to Turkey and flights to Turkish cities are back to their normal schedule, according to Shaher Hamdan, the president of the Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents. 

"Royal Jordanian operates two flights per day to Turkey, while Turkish Airlines have three flights everyday," he told The Jordan Times.  

Highlighting that the number of charter flights to tourist areas in Turkey varies according to the season, Hamdan said that at least two or three flights are operating daily. 

"The number of charter flights to Turkey reaches six per day during high seasons, especially in Eid vacations,” Hamdan said, noting that around 90,000 Jordanians travel to Turkey each year. 

"Most Jordanians can only afford to travel to two destinations now: Turkey and Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh, particularly as Syria and Lebanon are now considered unsafe," Hamdan said. 

Nearly 10,000 Jordanian tourists were in the Turkish cities of Marmaris, Antalya, Istanbul and Samsun when the attempted coup took place. 

In earlier remarks, Atallah Abu Assaf, a board member at the Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel agents, said that despite the political instability, only around 20 per cent of Jordanians with holidays booked to Turkey cancelled their trips.

The number of cancelled flights was within the “normal” range, considering the unrest in Turkey, he told The Jordan Times. 

There are some 700 tourism agencies across Jordan, 30 of which work with offices in Turkish cities.