Not easy to cover tourism losses: Business group

With many Russians holidaying elsewhere due to the now-resolved row between Moscow and Ankara, Turkey stands to lose between $8 billion and $10 billion in tourism revenue by the end of the year, according to Çetin Gürcün, the secretary-general of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB). 

"If we consider the volume of the Russian market, it's not easy to fill the void," Gürcün told The Associated Press.

The first Russian charter plane carrying tourists to Turkey since Moscow lifted travel sanctions imposed over the shooting down of a Russian jet in November last year landed in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya on Sept. 2.

The Royal Flight airlines plane touched down at Antalya Airport after Russian Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev last month signed a decree which lifted a charter flight ban, Doğan News Agency reported.  

Turkey and Russia normalized ties in June after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent a letter to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin expressing regret over the incident. Turkey-Russia relations are now back on track, but Gürcün said he didn't expect the Russian market to rebound before next year.

However, it hasn't just been Russians who have stayed away from Turkey's beaches and the cultural delights of places like Istanbul.

Thomas Cook, the British-based holiday company, said recently that demand for Turkish holidays was "significantly below last year's level" and that its overall bookings for the summer 2016 season were down by 5 percent, largely because of "geopolitical disruption."

Russia was Turkey's second-largest tourist market with 4.5 million people visiting places like the Turkish tourism capital of Antalya in 2014.

Official Turkish figures for the...