Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF TOURISM AND SERVICES, cilt.10, sa.18, ss.63-78, 2019 (ESCI)
The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of international relations on tourism demand in the context of aircraft crisis between Turkey and Russia that occurred on November 24, 2015. The content analysis have been made through the statistics, reports and qualitative research methods of 2014-2018 published by Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), Association of Turkish Travel Agencies of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (TURSAB) and Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TUROB). It has been determined in the research that the Russian tourist count and tourism revenue during the crisis (2016 = 866.256 tourists, 76.26% decrease compared to 2015) remained significantly below the tourist count and tourism revenue in the years before the crisis (2014 = 4.479.049 tourists and $3.471.263 tourism revenue - 2015 = 3.649.003 tourists and $2.609.037 tourism revenue). In the aftermath of the crisis, the number of Russian tourists and the revenue obtained (2017 = 4.715.438 tourists and $2.159.671 tourism revenue - 2018 = 5.964.613 tourists and $3.483.334 tourism income) exceeded the figures before the crisis. As happened so far, the crises will also negatively affect the tourism demand in the future. The international relations have significant role in the resolution of political crises. The dependency of Turkey on European and Russian markets has deepened the crisis. Therefore, the countries should direct to alternative markets that will decrease the dependency. Turkey should grow and diversify its target markets from EU and Russia towards Middle East countries, China, India and Asia Pacific countries. Results may be achieved in fixing the international relations with all tourism shareholders acting together. Government officials (President, Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs) may normalize the relations with diplomatic solutions and discussions while other tourism shareholders (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, TURSAB, Hoteliers, travel agencies, transportation companies etc.) may do this by attending festivals, tourism forums, workshop activities in such countries and conducting public relations activities towards potential tourists.