PM Erdogan

[Ray1951]

I beg your pardon Jacqui & Peeps.

[Ray1951]

Now that Erdogan has been elected President, I wonder what the future holds for Turkey, based on his recent changes to the law re. the selling of alcohol etc. and what the rate of exchange will be.  He has said that the rate needs to be reduced to approx 2.39, good news for some but not for others.  Obviously no one knows for sure, I just wondered what other peoples' thoughts are.

[usedbustickets]

Be it on my head, but I think my old aker Colwyn is slightly out on the contribution of tourism to the Turkish economy.  I think theat tourism's share of the Turkish economy is somewhere north of 11%, not 7%, and perhaps more importantly because it includes so many foreign tourist it is Turkey's single biggest foreign exchange earner.  So economically not insignificant at all. 

It is one part of the economy that I suspect that Reg and his Cronies would like to control more, but can't because of the risk of losing such a good earner from a tourist 'flight'.  So they'll settle for a greater share of the tourism pie coming their way, watch out for more land grabs - like Olu Deniz and other beach sales etc. - in the rich and more expensive tourist areas like Mugla and Antalya.

[Eric]

 According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, in 2012 travel and tourism made a total contribution of 10.9% to Turkish GDP and supported 8.3% of all jobs in the country.

[Colwyn]

I think theat tourism's share of the Turkish economy is somewhere north of 11%

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, in 2012 travel and tourism made a total contribution of 10.9% to Turkish GDP and supported 8.3% of all jobs in the country.

Yep, should have checked my stat before posting it. Guilty of using out of date numbers and there has been very considerable expansion of tourist numbers over the last few years. But this increase is not coming from Turkey's traditional visitor base of Western European countries. Although Europe OECD countries still account for nearly 43% of tourists, and all European countries together (excluding Russia) are just about half of all tourism, tourism from these areas is stagnant - this year -0.34% for Europe OECD and +1.32% for all Europe. Now Russia is by far the biggest single country for tourism at 18.56%. The Middle East is still a fairly small contributor at less than 8% (11% if you add in Iran) but it is growing significantly - up 29% last year and up 17% this year [NOTE: 2014 figures are provisional].[size=78%] [/size]
 http://www.kultur.gov.tr/EN,36568/number-of-arriving-departing-visitors-foreigners-and-ci-.html
The substantive comment I was making in my post was that, in my view, Erdogan wants to increase the tourist input from Islamic countries in the Middle East. The stats suggest that this is already proving successful.

[kevin3]

Just reading the Zaman and Daily Hurriet and it would appear Mr President  Elect may be in for a bumpy ride.
The knives are out in the AKP, Gul appears to be making plans and the Deputy PM is warning younger members
of the party to calm down and cool it. Erdogan is desperate to block Gul.

Perhaps things aren't too bad after alll.

[Scunner]

Is it possible that the party are in deep political activity by sending RTE 'upstairs' where he hopes to increase Presidential powers but can't without the parliamentary party passing the legislation required. So they get him upstairs then cut the rope and cast him adrift.

[JohnF]

Perhaps things aren't too bad after alll.

Dunno Kevin, frying pan and fire springs to mind.  Gül may not be as obvious as RTE, in his vision of an Islamic republic, but he's from the same stock. 

JF

[Marggie]

Totally agree John F.  However, he is not going to have it all his own way.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/gul-tells-erdogan-that-hes-in-the-game-too.aspx?PageID=238&NID=70289&NewsCatID=409

[Marggie]

Gül prevented from being a candidate for chairmanship of the AK party.

An article from Today's Zaman:

http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/orhan-kemal-cengiz/how-and-why-gul-was-left-out-of-the-picture_355644.html