Coronavirus not stopping flow of Israeli tourists to Turkey
Even before the coronavirus pandemic there was a significant increase in the number of Israelis visiting Turkey, and it seems that the trend continues despite the virus outbreak.
For many years, Turkey was the top tourist destination for Israelis. All-inclusive deals offered Israeli travelers a vacation at attractive prices, and the deals were snapped up by Israeli tourists wishing to get as much as they could on the cheap. The Turks are considered hospitable and warm hosts, and it seemed that this friendship could never be ruined. Then came the Mavi Marmara flotilla in 2010.
The flotilla that sailed from Turkey carrying hundreds of activists, mostly Turks, sought to break the maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip. When Israeli naval commandos boarded the deck of the Mavi Marmara, they were unexpectedly attacked and were forced to use live ammunition. The result: 10 Turkish activists were killed and an unprecedented diplomatic crisis between Jerusalem and Ankara ensued. Only in March 2013, following pressure from then-US President Barack Obama, did Israel apologize for the event. Later on, Israel agreed to compensate the families of those killed and injured, but this was reconciliation on paper only. Israelis preferred to refrain from visiting the country that was seen to be hostile to them.
According to Ministry of Tourism data obtained by Al-Monitor, until the Marmara incident in 2010, about 600,000 Israeli tourists visited Turkey every year. After the incident the number shrunk to 100,000 a year. The situation has lasted nearly a decade, with ups and downs, until the first significant change was first noted in 2019, when the number of Israeli tourists in Turkey broke a record, crossing 500,000 for the year.
But it seems that the jump in 2019 was not coincidental. A decade after the crisis, it seems that Israelis have rediscovered Turkey, and now it seems, even the coronavirus can't stop the mass tourist flow to Turkey. Although Israel is facing a second wave of infections at the moment, and although the situation in Turkey is not encouraging, flights from Tel Aviv to Istanbul haven’t stopped for a minute, and they are mostly full.
