ANKARA -

As soon as the Turkish economy began to recover from the disaster of the Corona pandemic, it was stumbled by the fires that spread in dozens of cities and negatively affected tourism, honey production and other industries.

Turkey has been witnessing since last July 28, fires in forest areas and resorts overlooking the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, and these fires resulted in 8 deaths, and forced many residents - many of them farmers - to flee, and led to the elimination of large areas of forests and agricultural land. .

In a tweet posted on Twitter, Turkish Minister of Forestry and Agriculture Bekir Pakdemirli said that all the fires that broke out in the various provinces of Turkey, except for the fires in Milas and Koygiz regions, have been brought under control.

Although no official figures have been issued to count the damage, the signs of losses are starting to become clear, and the loss of property is an immediate economic impact of forest fires, which results in consecutive effects that last for years, such as the displacement of families and individuals from their homes, and the destruction of companies, especially insurance companies, and leads to the elimination of Leisure activities, broadly affecting tourism, hospitality, restaurants and various industries.

Many reservations were canceled due to the fires and their impact on the tourist infrastructure of facilities and roads (Reuters)

tourism

A year after the devastation wrought by the Corona pandemic on the Turkish tourism sector, the worst forest fires in living memory dealt a new blow to the sector, which represents about 5% of the Turkish economy.

The easing of Corona's travel restrictions this summer led to optimism about the recovery of the Turkish tourism sector, but the forest fires disappointed companies.

Scenes of jubilant beachgoers in coastal areas turned into a nightmare as fires triggered mass evacuations of tourists and locals alike in cities such as Bodrum and Marmaris.

This severely affects tourism in Turkey, which mainly feeds into the economy. The Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation describes tourism in Turkey as "one of the most dynamic and fastest growing sectors in the country", providing more than two million jobs and more than 7% of total employment.

According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of foreign arrivals in June of this year barely exceeded two million, less than half of the total recorded in June 2019 and was more than 5 million foreign visitors.

Low tourism levels reduced the economic stimulus normally expected during the summer, and many businesses reported persistent and severe financial troubles.

The Turkish Ministry of Tourism had announced that it was working to reap tourism revenues of $20 billion for the year 2021, which is equivalent to 60% of tourism revenues for 2019, but this task has become almost impossible.

The Executive Director of the Federation of Russian Tour Operators, Maya Lomidze, said in an interview with a Russian radio station, that the forest fires in Turkey negatively affected the sales of tickets for tourist trips in Russia to Turkey.

Regarding the number of Russian tourists who visited Turkey in 2019, the data show that Turkey received more than 7 million Russian tourists in the mentioned year.

"There are no new reservations due to the forest fires, existing reservations have been canceled, the hotels are empty and guests are asking to end their stay early," said Bulent Pulbeoglu, head of the South Aegean Hotel Owners Association.

But Turkish Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy says that Turkey is committed to its goals of attracting 25 million tourists this year and generating $20 billion in revenues, which is far less than the $34.5 billion the country achieved in 2019 before the pandemic.

Muhammad Klub, an economic researcher at Yildirim Beyazit University in Ankara, told Al Jazeera Net that "in the field of tourism, seasonal tourism professionals complained about the damage to their businesses due to their total dependence on forests, as most of the lines of recreational activities in the cities of Marmaris, Fethiye and Bodrum are concentrated in the forests damaged by fires, This constitutes another burden on the Turkish tourism sector, which is still under the pressure of the Corona epidemic."

Klopp pointed out that many reservations were canceled due to the fires and their impact on the tourist infrastructure of facilities and roads, which caused the transfer of reservations to other destinations such as Egypt, which recently entered the competition line with the landing of the first direct flight from Russia to Egypt this week, which In turn, it will reshape the tourism map in the region, after Turkey was the first beneficiary of stopping direct air traffic between Russia and Egypt.

Scenes of jubilant beachgoers in coastal areas turned into a nightmare as the fires led to the mass evacuation of tourists (Al-Jazeera)

honey production

A report by the General Directorate of Forests stated that 85% of honey production in Turkey is derived from forests, a large number of which have been exposed to fires.

Turkey produces more than 100,000 tons of honey annually, making it the second largest honey producer in the world after China.

The city of "Mugla" - where the fires did not extinguish in two areas - is the most honey-producing province, and is the largest producer in the world of a type called pine honey.

The Director-General of the Federation of Turkish Chambers of Agriculture, Shamsi Bayraktar, announced that his country produces 6.85% of the total global production, lagging behind China, which ranked first with 30.6% of global production.

For his part, Mehmet Klub, an economic researcher at Yildirim Beyazit University, said that Turkey's annual honey production has become difficult to reach what was planned at 125,000 tons annually, especially since most of the honey forests in Antalya and Mugla have been affected by fires.

The easing of Corona’s travel restrictions this summer paved the way for a tourism recovery, but the forest fires disappointed companies (Reuters)

solutions

With regard to solutions to overcome the fire crisis, the economic researcher Klopp called for the necessity of urgent compensation for damaged facilities and seasonal professionals, and the introduction of new facilities with regard to the procedures for entering tourists to Turkey, in addition to finding innovative solutions to overcome health restrictions, by working on the application of the term safe tourism on the ground, and providing Some temptations for tourists such as free vaccination are not available in their countries as the United Arab Emirates did to attract tourists.

With regard to the honey industry in Turkey, it has become necessary to provide adequate means of protection against pests and fires to avoid similar events, in addition to urgent compensation for those affected by these fires to prevent the extinction of this profession and to promote it in the long run.

And Turkish Finance Minister Lutfi Alwan had said before the fires broke out that "the gross domestic product will grow more than 5% this year, supported by an increase in exports between 16% and 20% after the repercussions of the pandemic in 2020."