Turkey outlawed casinos in 1998, partially because of money-laundering. It is considering lifting the ban as a way of attracting more Chinese tourists.
Chinese tourism is the lure that is attracting many nations to allow gaming, because Asians are known for their fondness for gambling. Timur Bayindir, president of the Turkish Hoteliers Association (TÜROB) hopes to persuade the Erdogan regime to help the country attract some of the 129 million who visit foreign lands every year—although his estimate is about twice that number.
He told Jing Travel “Some 261 million Chinese travel around the world, but less than 1 million Chinese tourists visit Turkey.” He added, “Chinese love gambling and they spend a lot of money. That is the bottom line. If we do not open casinos, we will not be able to attract more Chinese tourists.”
The country has declared this year to be “Turkey Tourism Year” and coincidentally the growth of tourism is struggling right now. Between 2015 and 2015 Chinese tourism dropped 46 percent. Turkish tourism hopes to reverse that trend and attract a million visitors from China this year, or 700,000 more than it attracted last year.
Safety concerns are part of it, including the Syrian Civil War and the recent reported coup against President Erdogan. Chinese tourists are very sensitive to security concerns.
Bayindir proposes casinos that would only cater to foreign visitors. This would be a similar policy to that in force in several Asian countries, including China itself, which only allows gaming in one place: Macao.
He would like to see a casino on the island of Yassiada in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul. He told the Hurriyet Daily News, “It sits idle. A large casino could be opened on this island and only foreign passport holders would be al-lowed to gamble there. We are losing Chinese tourists to Bulgaria, Georgia and Romania because they have casinos.”
He also complains that it costs five times as much for a ticket to Turkey from China as it does to fly to Spain.
