<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ozstamps:
I was in Turkey 2 weeks ago and tourism is down horrendously as nearly all US tourists cancelled for summer.
Why? Because Turkey is an "Arabic" country. I kid you not. Durrhhh. </font>
While I don't doubt for one second that many of my geographically challenged countrymen have no idea that Turkey is part of Europe, I strongly doubt that American tourism in Turkey is down because of a perception that the country is Arabic. Instead, I suspect it has more to do with the fact that Turkey is too close to Iraq for the comfort of many and that Turkey was not viewed very favorably in this part of the world for inhibiting the US military's efforts to establish a northern front in the war. For what it's worth, the stance of the Turkish government appears to have
spurred tourism from the Arabic world even as it has caused American's to re-think their plans to visit the country.
[This message has been edited by cAAl (edited 08-01-2003).]