Despite unrest, few Jordanians cancel Turkey holiday plans

AMMAN — Despite the political instability, only around 20 per cent of Jordanians with holidays booked to Turkey have cancelled their trips, a tourism official said on Monday.

“Travel agencies and reservation offices have recorded financial losses over the past weeks, ever since Turkey started witnessing unstable conditions,” said Atallah Abu Assaf, the board member at the Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents. 

But the number of cancelled flights has been within the “normal” range, considering the unrest in Turkey, Abu Assaf told The Jordan Times. 

 “Planes are flying to Turkey either way; there is a fixed schedule for trips. This is what contributes to the losses registered in travel agencies and offices,” he added.

Nearly 10,000 Jordanian tourists were in the Turkish cities of Marmaris, Antalya, Istanbul and Samsun when the attempted coup took place, he said.

Shaher Hamdan, the president of the Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents, said Jordanian tourism offices mostly organise trips  to Turkey and Egypt’s Sharm El Sheikh. 

“Since Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and some Egyptian cities are unsafe, Jordanians choose Turkey and Sharm El Sheikh for vacations,” he told The Jordan Times.

“We did not receive complaints from Jordanian tourists in Turkey when the attempted coup took place, and at 2.30pm the day after the failed coup, flights were back to normal and planes flew to different Turkish cities again,” Hamdan said.

He added that many Jordanians have booked flights to Turkey for the upcoming week.

There are some 700 tourism agencies around Jordan, 30 of which work with offices in Turkish cities, according to Hamdan. 

The official said around four planes departed from Amman for Turkey on Sunday. 

Around 90,000 Jordanians visit Turkey every year, he added.

An employee at a reservation office said a four-day trip with a stay at four-star hotels currently costs around JD220 to Istanbul, JD200 to Marmaris, JD260 to Antalya and JD250 to Bodrum.