Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 4
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
Mass protests in Iran negatively affected the tourism sector of Turkey, because Iranian tourists have canceled hotel reservations in the country’s eastern province of Van, the Turkish media reported Jan. 4.
Over the past week, some groups of people joined demonstrations in a number of cities of Iran, including the capital Tehran, Mashhad and Kermanshah to protest against high prices, but the economic protests soon turned into anti-government demonstrations.
The government officials have urged people to refrain from participating in these protests. According to the Iranian media outlets, 28 people were killed during the protests.
Reportedly, the booking of more than 5,000 rooms in the hotels of Van province was canceled since the beginning of protests in Iran.
In nine months of 2017, 335,000 Iranian tourists visited the Van province that is 40 percent more than in the same period of 2016.
According to the forecast of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, it was expected that nearly 450,000 Iranian tourists will visit the Van province until the end of 2017.
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