In just one day Turkey saw four major incidents of violence across Turkey as violence continue to escalate. Worst in Istanbul, with two separate attacks, when attackers opened fire outside the United States Consulate in Istanbul, and a bomb explosion at a police station. At least 10 people were reported to have been injured in the police station bomb blast, including three police officers.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Denmark and other countries has made new, stricter travel advice, and travel agencies in other countries, including Germany, has been troubled by the development in Turkey.
“Danish travelers generally have a hassle-free stay in Turkey,” says the travel advice from Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark.
“There is a significant risk of terrorist attacks in Turkey. Attacks in recent years have taken place in different parts of Turkey, including Istanbul. It cannot be excluded that tourists also can be hit either deliberately or by accident.”
Terrorist attacks are generally aimed at Turkish military, police and political targets. Recent developments in the relations between Turkey and Kurdish and militant Islamic groups engaged in conflicts in Syria and Iraq has intensified the security situation in Turkey.
There are reports of possible attacks against public transport in Istanbul. All travel and stay within a radius of 10 km from the Turkish border with Syria and Iraq is discouraged. Un-necessary travel and accommodation is not recommended in the rest of the border region with Syria and Iraq. There are regular demonstrations in several major cities in Turkey.
Distance between Istanbul and Antalya is 481 kilometers, and there have been no reports of unrest in the tourist areas Antalya, Alanya.
“We have not received a single inquiry about the situation in Turkey. Most of the tourist areas in Antalya and Alanya are so far away from Istanbul and eastern Turkey,” says Peder Hornshøj, CEO, Bravo Tours, Denmark.
“People read the travel advice from the Foreign Ministry. But the threat situation now is different than 10-15 years ago. Terrorist attacks can happen in Copenhagen and everywhere in the world. People will not just stay at home. There is a warning from Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) but there is no ban. If MFA directly warned against traveling to Turkey, it was a totally different situation,” added Peder Hornshøj,
Bravo Tours has about 20,000 guests from Denmark to Turkey.
“We have noticed an increase in inquiries from our customers, especially when there were a lot of writings in the press. The most common question we get is about the dangers of travel to Turkey and what we recommend. We answer / referring to the Foreign Ministry, and notify that there is no advice against travel to the destinations we have in our program, “says Anders Lindström, Sales Manager, Turkietresor, Stockholm.
“We have only 2 destinations (Antalya and Bodrum), and surrounding destinations are not affected, says the Foreign Office. On the contrary. It’s a very long distance to the areas which is not recommended. We have about 45,000 travelers to Turkey from Sweden. We don´t have Istanbul in our program. It can generally always be said, that you should avoid crowds, demonstrations, and be aware of what is happening in the area. We do not have yet a definite program / capacity for next year. But we plan to obviously have traffic to Turkey in similar extent, as we have had in years,” added Anders Lindström.
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