Association of Turkish Travel Agencies

Dozens of legal and real persons flocked to the courtroom to voice their opposition to a Booking.com ban, citing the losses they have incurred from the decision, daily Dünya reported on May 22. 

Representatives from a top brand city hotel said their losses exceeded 85,000 euros, while a boutique hotel owner said they had lost around 16,000 euros. 

Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci has stated that Turkish officials are in talks with booking.com to act in compliance with the law in Turkey in order to be fully operational again.

"I had a meeting; now our friends are meeting," Zeybekci told state-run Anadolu Agency.

The Greek tourism sector appears troubled about the recent result in the Turkish referendum and how it could affect the industry in the wider Mediterranean region along with the geopolitical developments in the wider area.

Edirne is just three kilometers away from Greece and 17 kilometers away from the Bulgarian border. That explains why on our first dinner during our three-day visit to the city, the repertoire of the lovely singer on stage was like a Balkan musical mosaic.

The Hoteliers Association of Turkey (TÜROB) has applied to a court with a demand to lift an interim measure on online hotel reservation website Booking.com, noting that the measure had only served to harm the country's struggling accommodation sector.

Our tourism sector, which is struggling amid a severe crisis, is now experiencing total chaos because of the ban on the hotel reservation website booking.com that came as the result of a case opened by the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB). 

Hoteliers from Turkey's touristic Aegean region have voiced their anger against a recent court decision against Booking.com, blasting a leading sector association that filed a case against the online reservation portal over competition concerns. 

A leading Turkish tourism association is set to send a court decision against Booking.com to similar foreign online reservation portals, including Tripadvisor.com, to ask them to comply with the required competition rules or face legal action, daily Dünya reported on March 31. 

An unusual anti-competition ruling was made by an Istanbul court this week. I am not a judicial person and will not make any comments regarding the court's decision. However, this idea deserves to be reviewed, especially in terms of its future effects, mainly over Turkey's struggling tourism and image. 

Booking.com has said it disagrees with an Istanbul court ruling to halt the activities of the Netherlands-based travel fare aggregator website in Turkey, adding that it will appeal the decision. 

The website on March 30 began to halt selling rooms in Turkey to Turkish users, one day after a court decision to block the website in the country.