Tourism will grow much, much more, but...

As we reach the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, there are many surprising developments in the world; but one thing is certain: tourism will grow much more.

Until 150-200 years ago, people who were born and spent their entire lives within their own village or town now want to travel more, see more, and have more fun, and they are spending significant money on this.

More and more hotels are being built all over the world.

Airlines are ordering plane after plane to meet passenger demand.

Although we cannot use them much in Turkey, short-term home rental businesses, through applications like Airbnb, are becoming even more widespread in other countries.

Again in Turkey, it is a fact that we are condemned to a limited number of taxis due to our narrow-minded bureaucracy, but in every major city in the world, the opportunity to find both very cheap and very safe taxis has been created through Uber-like applications.

For example, the Greeks have simplified visas to attract more Turkish tourists to their islands, and because those places are cheaper, Turks will flock there this year.

And it is understood that tourism will grow more and more as an industry, and every country that facilitates this and brings more tourists to its country will earn more.

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As you know, at the beginning of March, we were at the Shymbulak ski resort in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with about 100 foreign journalists for the traditional winter meeting of the International Ski Club of Journalists (SCIJ), and we had the opportunity to listen to their experiences. Some of our colleagues, who specialize in tourism and global warming in particular, shared their experiences from their own fields.

An Italian journalist explained that due to the negative impact of global warming, there was no snow at a ski resort near Rome even at the end of January. In this region, which should normally be experiencing the most vibrant times of ski tourism in January, people were walking around in shirts in 16-degree weather early in the morning.

As more and more ski resorts are left without snow, the number of centers where skiing is possible is decreasing, which leads to ski vacations becoming a more expensive holiday every year; we are already feeling this in Turkey as well.

The Italian journalist also mentioned the possibility of the canal city of Venice being flooded in 2050 due to the effect of global warming, and that the glaciers in Italy will also melt completely in the near future.

A German journalist also drew attention to the same danger and said:

“Due to less snowfall, ski slopes have started to become insufficient. Long slalom races can no longer be held in ski resorts that do not have a certain altitude. For long slaloms, it is necessary to start from much higher up the mountains. For example, Switzerland's most well-known and luxurious ski resort, Zermatt, did not have enough snow this year. Ski athletes from many countries had to go to countries like the USA, where there are very high ski resorts, for training in November.”

A Croatian journalist specializing in tourism said that although global warming has negative effects on ski resorts, tourism in general is booming and said:

“Hotels are being built non-stop all over the world. For example, in Bali, there were 5 hotels 15-20 years ago, now there are perhaps 5 thousand hotels. Unfortunately, there is insufficient drinking water in Bali, where so many hotels are being built; there is really no drinking water. But no one cares about this, hotels are being built and opened one after another. Because of tourism, traffic, pollution, and construction are all increasing in many countries around the world, but because it makes money, no one looks at all these negative sides and cares. Airline companies are buying planes non-stop but cannot find pilots; they are suffering from a pilot shortage.”

Of course, global warming also has another benefit; as a Kazakh journalist explained, there are now vineyards in many places where grapes did not grow due to the cold weather in the past, and therefore wine was not made. The Kazakh journalist explained by giving examples that in many places that are ski resorts where very harsh winter conditions normally prevail, there are now vineyards and quality wine has become producible; among these was the city of Almaty, and this was truly surprising.

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Looking at all these things that have been said, and knowing the fact that Istanbul and Antalya are among the top 10 cities in the world that attract the most tourists, it turns out that we need to give more importance to tourism. But if we want a bigger share of tourism, we must also prevent the following, specifically in Turkey:

Ripping off every tourist who comes along.

Blocking Uber-like applications in the face of taxi driver terror.

Banning Airbnb-like applications just because a few local bosses want it.

Treating daily rental houses like safe houses.

Continuing to close down venues that serve alcohol at every opportunity.

Treating alcohol like a drug and piling tax upon tax.

Selling flight tickets more expensively than the rest of the world just because our planes are good.

Making foreigners even sicker by bringing them here under the guise of health tourism.

Most importantly, the slowness that both tourists and locals encounter in their search for trust and justice.

Unfortunately, our negative practices like these do not end, and it does not look like they will end.

It is our job to write it.