382 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EURASIAN ECONOMIES 2011

Strategies for Industry under the Global Economic Crisis: A Swot Analysis of Turkish Tourism Orhan Akova ( University, ) Mehmet Sarıışık (Sakarya University, Turkey) Dilek Dönmez (Çanakkale 18 Mart University, Turkey)

Abstract This paper outlines the relations between the global economic crisis around the world and tourism and analyzes related strategies of Turkish tourism against them by conducting a qualitative view. It notes the growing importance of economic crisis for the tourism industry and its affects on Turkish tourism. The paper also tries to point out important strategies for Turkish tourism related to global economic crisis-especially the one that affected the whole world in the 2008 the global financial crisis will be held. Turkish tourism has not been affected as much as its competitors as global economic crisis affected during the last crisis term. While in most countries around the world tourist arrivals have been declined, Turkey has received a higher rate in tourist arrivals since the global economic crisis started. Although tourist arrivals have been arose, the tourism revenues have been declined in the year of 2009 and 2010 according to previous years. In this paper it is going to be analyzed the conditions and related strategies of Turkish tourism against global economic crisis. In order to assess all industrial conditions, Turkish Tourism has been taken in hand in SWOT view. Depending upon SWOT outputs some relevant strategies will be discussed for the Turkish future policies about tourism industry. JEL codes: G01, F01

1 Introduction Natural disasters and crises are neither rare nor new phenomena but in recent years they have achieved considerable prominence largely because of the globalization of business and international communications (Sausmarez, 2004). The world is becoming more interdependent and connected so that small-scale crises in one part of the world can have a significant impact on other parts of the world. Political instability, economic recession, disasters, terrorist attacks or the outbreak of war in one part of the world can dramatically reduce tourist travel patterns to other parts of the world. Tourism is therefore highly susceptible to external factors and pressures in the wider operating environment (Ritchie, 2004). World economy faces an unprecedented crisis, triggering one of the most severe recessions in generations. The world‘s GDP is forecast to decline by some 1.4% in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF, July 2009), the exports have been dramatically reduced and all advanced economies are in recession (WTO,2009). Global tourism has been severely affected by the current financial and economic downturn. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) data, started to decline during the second semester of 2008, (Papatheodorou et,al, 2010) Tourism, though resisting better than some sectors, has become one of the latest sectors to feel the effects of the global recession. Markets started to deteriorate by mid 2008. UNWTO market monitoring indicates that the plummeting results of international tourism during the last part of 2008 have continued during the first months of 2009 (WTO, 2009). Moreover, while financial institutions around the world confirm the intensity of the crisis through various indicators, the negative trend in international tourist arrivals intensified during the first semester of 2009 in line with the prevailing financial situation (Papatheodorou et.al, 2010). Despite this fragility, few countries appear to make any advance preparations or provision for their tourism sectors in anticipation of a crisis. Instead, they tend to wait until after the event before starting to consider what action to take (Sausmarez, 2004). Tourism industry has direct and indirect impacts on both developed and developing countries economies. if any crisis arise the repercussions extend beyond activities directly associated with tourism (notably, airlines, hotels, and catering), to those supplying intermediate or final goods purchased by firms and employees in the industry, so that all sectors of the economy are affected to a greater or lesser extent. Governments then need to implement a range of policies to offset the crisis. Goverments are also faced with the difficult decision of what, if any, measures to take, particularly since the implementation of many measures is costly and their relative effectiveness varies. Policymakers need to evaluate the relative merits of alternative responses and consider the combination of policies to cope with the crisis (Blake and Sinclair, 2003). That means that policymakers should analyse the environment constantly and should predict the following crisis so that the tourism industry is ready for any crisis that could occur any where in the world. Turkish tourism has not been affected as much as its competitors as global economic crisis affected during the last crisis term. While in most countries around the world tourist arrivals have been declined, Turkey has SESSION 6A: Tourism & IT 383 received a higher rate in tourist arrivals since the global economic crisis started. Although tourist arrivals have been arrised, the tourism revenues have been declined in the year of 2009 and 2010 according to previous years. In this paper it is going to be analysed the conditions and related strategies of Turkish tourism against global economic crisis by conducting a qualitative view. In order to assess all industrial conditions, Turkish Tourism has been taken in hand in SWOT view. Depending upon SWOT outputs some relevant strategies will be discussed.

2 The Literature Review of Crisis and Global Economic Crisis and its Effect on Tourism Industry Undoubtedly, the tourism industry is one of the most susceptible and vulnerable industries to crises. (Santana, 2004) However the literature on crisis and related strategies for tourism industry under the global economic crisis in tourism is limited. These studies that have published have mainly examined the impact of specific crises on a tourist destination or region and a country (Lee et.al., 1996; Henderson, 1999; Faulkner, 2001; Hope & Klemm, 2001; Pizam and Fleischer 2002; Huang and Min 2002; Blake and Sinclair 2003; Taylor and Enz 2002, Coles, 2003; Okumuş and Karamustafa 2005, Okumuş et.al.2005; Lim and McAleer, 2005; Anderson, 2006; Athanasopoulos and Hyndman, 2008; Chu, 2008). The study by Taylor and Enz (2002) reveals that the tragic events of September 11 in the United States affected hotel segments in different ways; for example, high-priced hotels experienced a greater decline in business than budget ones. Upscale hotels relied on marketing strategies to attract new customers, while budget ones offered discounts. The manner in which governments respond to shocks in the tourism industry is important, as it may influence the rate of recovery of the industry (Prideaux, et.al., 2003). After September 11, the US government passed a $15 billion relief package that helped its faltering tourism industry recover, and this saved many businesses from bankruptcy. Blake and Sinclair (2003) claim that if there had been no such relief package, the US industry would have suffered from the terrorist attacks much more than it did. Blake and Sinclair (2003) studied the low season of the US tourism industry after the September 11 attacks, and found that tax reductions were the most efficient way to handle the crisis. The immediate government responses to the September attacks included law enforcement activity, disaster relief, and security measures. Eleven days after the attacks, Congress passed the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act, to ―preserve the continued viability of the United States air transportation system‖. This Act provided federal credit to airlines totaling $10bn; compensation to airlines totaling $5bn; compensation for airlines facing increased insurance premiums; limitation of the extent of liability by airlines for the results of terrorist acts; allowances for airlines to make late payment of excise taxes; compensation for individuals killed or injured in the September attacks; and spending of $3bn on airline safety. (Blake and Sinclair , 2003). Chu (2008) used the Asian financial crisis and the September 11 attacks as examples of economic and political blows, and analysed the accuracy of using a fractionally integrated ARMA model to predict tourism and make comparisons. Pizam and Fleischer (2002) showed that, between May 1991 and May 2001, tourism demand in was highly dependent upon the frequency of terrorist activities. Terrorist attacks resulted in a drastic reduction of international tourists arriving in Israel. According to Mansfield (1999), the Israeli government often failed to give support to tourism organizations during and after several crises. Henderson (1999) reports that the results of a survey of leading tourist attractions in Singapore investigating the consequences of the Asian financial crisis indicated that there was no crisis management planning and that there was a need for such planning in the light of the nature of the travel and tourism industry, with its exposure to risk and disaster. By contrast, Coles (2003) reports that in the case of the Food and Mouth Disease in the , regional tourism offices in the southwestern part of England where the disease had broken out sponsored marketing strategies that helped the region overcome the negative impacts of the crises. On the other hand there are many studies that emphasize that the impact of crisis events on the demand for tourism was not as large as expected. For example, Lee, Var, and Blaine (1996) indicated that the oil crisis and the 1988 Olympics did not significantly influence inbound . Athanasopoulos and Hyndman (2008) examined the influence of the Sydney 2000 Olympics and the bomb blast in Bali in 2000 on domestic tourism demand in Australia, and found that Sydney 2000 promoted an immediate demand in business travel, whereas the number of visitors meeting friends and relatives increased significantly after the blast in Bali. Huang and Min (2002) examined the impact of the 21st September 1999 earthquake in Taiwan, and found that the recovery period exceeded 11 months, with restricted growth of inbound tourist arrival. According to de Sausmarez (2003), marketing strategies supported by the government of Malaysia, helped to increase domestic and inbound tourism in the aftermath of the Asian financial turmoil. Lim and McAleer (2005) examined how two financial crises, the stock market crash in 1987 and the Asian financial crisis in 1997, affected Japanese tourists traveling to Australia from 1976 to 2000. According to Okumuş and Karamustafa (2005) the economic crisis in the year 2001 neither tourism firms nor the government could foresee the event and therefore failed to make advance preparations. The crisis was responded to with reactive and ad- hoc measures at the organizational, regional, and national levels. It is worth noting that the industry faced this crisis (and several previous ones) but could not respond to it well because of major shortcomings in the governance. (Okumus and Karamustafa 2005; Buultjens & Howard, 2001). A study involving registered club managers in New South Wales indicated that the most important areas of flexibility were work-time, functional 384 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EURASIAN ECONOMIES 2011 and numerical flexibility (Buultjens & Howard, 2001). They report the results of a survey of small businesses in Pennsylvania and New York, which indicated from the 162 responses, that little emphasis had been placed on crisis planning in these businesses, the majority of which had less than 25 employees. The study also concluded that ‗concern for crises was generated from the past experience of those crises…‘ (Spillan and Hough, 2003). Okumus et al. (2005) investigated the impact of the economic crisis in February 2001 in Turkey on tourism in northern , and found that a majority of the industry players in northern Cyprus failed to predict a financial crisis or take any preventive measures. The few reports that have investigated the impact of natural disasters and financial crisis on tourism have determined that they do significantly affect the tourism industry (Chu, 2008; Huang and Min, 2002; Lim and McAleer, 2005; Okumus et al., 2005; Pizam and Fleischer, 2002 and Prideaux and Witt, 2000). The impact of a major disaster and aconomic crisis are so immense that the production value of the tourism industry can fall dramatically; however, the industry has always managed to resume or exceed its former production values within a period of just one or two years. Such a phenomenon is worth investigating so that the public may learn from past problems and develop prevention and improvement measures (Wang 2009).To cope with a crisis it is neccesary for the goverments to have action plans before the crisis started and have to analize the environment periodically so that they can take some measures. The policies for the crisis should be prepared by all part of tourism sector and organisations. It is also important to ensure that in the rush to return to the ‗status quo‘, valuable lessons are not forgotten which would help guide responses to the next crisis which will inevitably occur. Faulkner (2001) suggests that good management means having strategies for coping with unexpected events over which organisations have no control (Anderson, 2006). To provide a deep insight into this complex environment, it is necessary to perform more studies on how tourism organizations respond to and cope with crises. In most of these cases, where governments have actually recognized the importance of the tourism downturn and acknowledged the need for a policy response, they have operated in an environment where very little research into the merits of offsetting policy responses has been conducted ( Wang, 2009).

3 Related Strategies For Tourism Industry in Crisis Crisis is a ―disruption that physically affects a system as a whole and threatens its basic assumptions, its subjective sense of self, its existential core ( Pauchant and Mitroff, 1992). There are different categories of crises, including ecological, financial, regional, and global. Even if they are categorized under different names, important similarities exist among them, and one type can lead to other types (Okumuş and Karamustafa 2005; Kovoor-Misra, Clair and Bettenhausen 2001; Richardson 1994)The sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S. was the prelude to a financial and economic crisis the effect which have been felt all around the world. The effects was so strong to whose financial sectors had been highly internationalized and whose economies were closely linked to the U.S. were particularly badly effected. As regards the measures adopted by many countries response to the global financial crisis, has relied heavily on monetary and fiscal policy to cope with the impact of the crisis. They have adopted a relaxed monetary policy and cut interest rates so as to boost bank liquidity.and they tried to stimulate consumer spending, help small and medium enterprises to secure funding, promoting investment, and boosting exports. The main measures adopted to boost consumer spending included programs to encourage consumers to replace old appliances and other consumer durables with new, low-energy-consumption, environmentally-friendly appliances. Absence of some form of crisis srategies perhaps reflects the fatal mistake made by many businesses that a crisis will not happen to them (Wang, 2010). Tourism crisis is defined as: . . . any occurrence which can threaten the normal operation and conduct of tourism-related businesses; damage a tourist destination‘s overall reputation for safety, attractiveness, and comfort by negatively affecting visitor‘s perception of that destination; and, in turn, cause a downturn in the local travel and tourism economy, and interrupt the continuity of business operations for the local travel and tourism industry, by the reduction of tourist arrivals and expenditures. Each crisis situation is unique and difficult to resolve with simple formulas. (Sonmez et al, 1999). The strategies for crisis that can effect tourism can be catogorized in two ways one which the goverments should handle the other the tourism firms should handle. First both sides should have an action plan before crisis. Goverments should respond to shocks in the tourism industry so that it may influence the rate of recovery of the industry. The strategies that goverment can apply for the tourism firms and related sectors are ; tax reductions, compensation to tourism firms and related sectors, increased insurance premiums; limitation of the extent of liability by tourism firms and related industries for the results of global economic crisis; allowances to make late payment of excise taxes and compensation to employees. Governments can pass relief package that can help faltering tourism industry recover, and so can save many businesses from bankruptcy. Goverments can also be one of the big sponsore for marketing strategies that can help the country overcome the negative impacts of the crises. The strategies that can tourism firms apply are ; for example upscale hotels can rely on marketing strategies to attract new customers, while budget ones can offer discounts. The Tourism firms can adjust work-time, functional and numerical flexibility as mentioned above. Tourism firms can also promote themself to new markets and can change their marketing strategies according to domestic and global market. SESSION 6A: Tourism & IT 385

4 Strategies for Strengthening Turkish Tourism Sector According to Okumus and Karamustafa (2005) the economic crisis in the year 2001 neither tourism firms nor the government could foresee the event and therefore failed to make advance preparations. Although Turkey has become one of the ten leading destination in the world. Again in the year 2008 neither tourism firms nor the government could foresee the event and therefore failed to make advance preparations. But in 2007 goverment declareted 2023 strategic action plan. This plan helped Turkey to find the way for the right strategies. In the years of the crisis the goverment supported domestic tourism by the 2023 strategy so Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Turkish Hotelier Federation, Turkish Travel Agency Association and Turkish Airlines worked together to stimulate domestic tourism by advance booking program so that local people can reach tourism product as cheap as the foreign tourist so that the hotel occupancy rates could get a higher level and the hotelier could cope with the global financial crisis. This program also included payment facilities, transportation and accomodation discounts. All inclusive tours also attracted foreign tourist as a main marketing tool to Turkey for the tourist who want to know how much money he can spent for vocation. Tourist profile has changed. In 2009 the number of tourist coming from Middle East countries increased about %21-%50 because of Turkish politics against İsrail and Turkish TV series broadcasting in these conutries make Turkey popular destination for Arap tourists. Turkish goverment invested on new tourism products such as culture, health, education, younth, nature, belief, yachting, golf, winter and convention tourism ect.. Price-and quality has balanced according to privious years. Turkey invested new destinations. Turkish destinations are new and undiscovered correpending its competitors. Turkish hotels age are younger than , , and other Mediterenian Contries. For example avarage hotel age in Turkey is 6- 6.5 years while in france 24, in 27 in spain 30 and in Greece 21 This make Turkish hotels much modern and qualified than the others. Turkey is also close destination for european tourists. This is an advantage for the tourist who want to stay long and pay less. Support from big European tour operators (for example TUI and Thomas Cook) helped Turkey to receive more tourists from western Europa (http://www.euractiv.com.tr). While the number of tourist visiting to Turkey from Middle East increased the number of tourist visiting Turkey from Europe and America is declined (http://www.turofed.org.tr/). Turkey also started to receive more tourist from , , , Azerbajan and and The tourist comig from OECD countries are declined.(http://www.patronturk.com/turizm-sektorunde-son-durum). Goverment also compenseted employees and the tourism firms by late payment of excise taxes and labour tax compensetion to the tourist firms that effected by the economic crisis. On the other hand Turkey received much more tourist than previous years because of the changing profile of tourist conbinations. So the crisis was responded to with reactive and ad-hoc measures at the organizational, regional, and national levels. But 2023 action plan helped tourism firms and goverment to find the right strategies for the tourism industry. This action plan is given below. Countries in which tourism industry has a big importance have developed action plans to ensure development is working with the sectors concerned. Turkey has established action plan for tourism in 2023. The Ministry of Culture & Tourism has issued Turkey‘s 2023 Tourism Strategy with the intention of guiding the tourism industry in production management and implementation phases, by creating a roadmap for the sector. According to this plan and introduced measures in the basic findings are as follows (www.turizm.gov.tr, 2011). Table-1 shows strategies for strengthening the tourism sector generated by the Culture and Tourism Ministry (2011).

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Planning Strategy: - Activating the local level councils - Providing sector development according to the realities of the market for productivity -Responding to new demands and trends in the developing world by rehabilitation of the investment environment -Contributions to the provision of economic development by foreign exchange and employment aspects -Development of residential areas of tourism with the environment and the organization-Solving infrastructure and environmental problems in cooperation with local authorities- Implementation of the principle of ―Destination-Oriented Planning‖ Investment Strategy: - Determining incentives and regional characteristics on an annual basis detailed studies - Travel agencies benefit from this support as well as small accommodation businesses - Elimination needs for the renewal of tourism investments on short-term - development of promotional and marketing policies within the scope of tourism investment incentive process - Diversification of tourism, development projects spread over the entire country and all year - Encourage investment in areas outside the Coastal - Removing bureaucratic obstacles, certification of companies Organizational Strategy: - Provision of institutionalization to ensure NGOs' participation in decision-making processes under the principle of "Good Governance". Research and Development Strategy: - Investigation of new products, competition and cooperation in tourism sector in general context. - Encouraging studies for research on collaboration and innovation, product development, improve the quality of personnel based on enterprise scale - At this point cooperation with universities, public, private sector and NGOs - The ministry will establish ―The National Tourism Data Base‖ and it will be available to members via the Internet Other Headlines: - Each year about 1 percent of revenue from tourism will be devoted to promotion - E-promotion, affecting tourism, such as e-marketing and e-commerce technologies will be invested by public and private sector. - Plans and projects will be to promote tourism in the city tourism in , İstanbul, İzmir and . Table 1. Strategies for the Tourism Sector in Turkey

5 A Swot Analysis of Turkish Tourism Tourism is an important sector for the Turkish economy and Turkey is one of the world‘s fastest growing tourism markets. The number of foreign tourists visiting Turkey swelled 17.8 fold in the past three decades, from 1.523 million in 1980 to a record 27.077 million in 2010, according to the Turkish Statistics Institute. In 2009, the country had 3.34% share in the global tourism market share, up from 2.7% in 2005. By 2013, Turkey aims to attract 38 million tourists annually and earn 34.4 billion a year from tourism, according the State Planning Organization‘s Ninth Five Year Development Plan (Turkish Statistics Institute, 2009). Statistics related to the year 2010 and expectations in 2011 are as follows (TUROFED, 2011): 1. Turkey expecting 31 million tourists and earn 25 billion during 2011. 2. Turkey hosted 28,632.204 tourists in 2010. The number of tourists Istanbul city hosted in 2010 decreased 7.31 percent when compared to 2009. 3. World Tourism Organization (WTO) envisaged a four percent rise in the number of tourists, and a five percent increase in tourism expenses. 4. According to WTO figures, Turkey ranked the 7th in the number of tourists, and 9th in tourism incomes among top ten countries in the world. 5. Number of passengers, who used 46 airports across Turkey, increased 20.1 percent to 103 million in 2010, adding that their target was 125 million passengers in 2011. SWOT analysis was carried out for Turkish tourism and the results are summarised as follows (Akça, 2006; Karadeniz, Kandır ve Önal, 2007; Gürkan, 2009; Turkish Tourism Industry Report, 2010; ):

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Strengths Weaknesses -Turkey, in recent years, rising in target countries, -Unplanned construction in tourism regions. the image of Vacation Land. -Lack of harmony between the local -Proximity to the EU countries and Russia. authorities about the management of tourism. -Price and the products that appeal to all income -Our image in the country failed to groups. environment. -Strengthening the perception of safe holiday. -Market countries, widespread 'cheap' -Strong sectoral organization (BLS, TURSAB country 'our image. TUROFED and local organizations). -Perception of Turkey is a conservative -USD, Euro, £ Sterling against the cheaper Turkish country. Liras. -Not being organized enough to promotion. – Strong, dynamic and tour operators with -Decreased tolerance on issues such as experience in managing the crisis. alcohol and nudity. -The improvement of relations with Turkey's - Low service and product quality in hotels. neighboors, in particular Greece and Armenia. -Unrecorded transactions and tax avoidance -Availability of an excellent coastline, a wide range among smaller, less organized businesses in of natural attractions, unique historical and the sector. archaeological sites and a suitable climate. -Increasing input costs. -Know-how in the hospitality sector. Well-trained -Difficulties in gathering and disseminating workforce. data. -Strong government support behind the industry. –Near to main tourist markets geographically. Opportunities Threats -People aged over 50 prefer Turkey in European -Competitors such as the strategic importance Union with Hotels and resorts provide important of Spain and Egypt, to support the tourism infrastructure for elderly tourists. sector to identify as a State Policy. -Promotional and sales activities to support the -Croatia, with the potential for increasing bed in EU Countries. to become one of the actors in EU tourism -The nature of Turkey's will increase the interest rising. with escape from industrial cities to nature. -The rising opposition to the EU in Turkey. -Turkey will be the primary choice when traveling -Depending on the financial crisis in the EU for medical advice. countries, on holiday with credit risk of -Turkey tourism has tour operators who are consumers being forced to find loans. evaluating the best last minute sales. -Lack of joint promotion and marketing of -Turkey is a step in front of its competitors, with a tourism stakeholders. choice of inexpensive holiday. -Not being integrated into the budget and -EU‘s grand tour operators sees Turkey as strategic activities. investments. -Short-term domestic and external debts of -Unutilised potential not only in coastal tourism but the sector investors. also in various other types of tourism including -High level of special consumption tax on health & thermal resources, winter sports, golfing, alcohol. 3% tax on daily accommodation yachting, etc. charges. -Availability of young and knowledgeable -War possibility in neighbor countries ( e.g., workforce. in Syria ). -Further liberalisation in aviation market. -Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture. -Having opportunity for tourism throughout Turkey in four seasons. Table 2: A Swot Analysis of Turkish Tourism As seen in Table 2, Turkey has the strengths of the industry that are able to meet the demands of tourists as like safe holiday image, strong sectoral organization, good relations with neighboors, natural and historical attractions, well-trained workforce. Turkish tourism sector can evaluate and use all these components to have strategic advantage. Turkish tourism industry also has weaknesses and this includes the following – unplanned construction, lack of harmony between the local authorities about the management of tourism, low service and product quality, increasing input costs, 'cheap' country ' image. For success of Turkey tourism, these weaknesses must be solved urgently. Turkey has also opportunities about tourism industry. Table-2 shows also these opportunities. These are; important infrastructure for elderly tourists, the primary choice when traveling for medical advice, good image for EU‘s grand tour operators, young and knowledgeable workforce, a choice of inexpensive holiday. If Turkish tourism sector can use these opportunities strategically, it can be succesfull. If there are opportunities, there are threats. Danger and threats are the factors that affect both Turkey and the tourism sector negatively. Some of them are: competitors such as Spain and Egypt, the rising opposition to the EU, Lack of cooperation among tourism stakeholders, debts of the sector investors, ratio of taxes, war possibility 388 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EURASIAN ECONOMIES 2011 in neighbor countries. For competitive advantages in tourism industry, Turkey must analyse all these points, and must manage tourism industy strategically.

6 Conclusions Tourism is increasingly making big contribution to national economies, particularly in developing countries like Turkey. Tourism has been one of the fastest growing industries. In addition, tourism has also a significant potential to change and influence the natural and cultural resources in a number of regions. Tourism is an industry that can be affected by external factors easily and quickly such as politics, wars, diseases, global economic crises and etc. Therefore, the tourism product developers and supply side of countries should organize plans and strategies to provide best tourism product for tourists in times of crisis. Tourism product developers and supply side have to understand that tourism have sensitive characteristics to external factors. This paper triedto analyse the affect on the tourism industry by the global economic crises and what new strategies emerge during this situation with the SWOT analysis. Economists and tourism industry experts take into consideration the past economic global crises to get lessons from the past. In case of crisis, it has been understood that tourism will not stop but will flow in a different situation. There will be a change in the travelling and holiday behavior of the people and therefore the tourism businesses have to adopt a different strategies to survive in case of crisis. Crisis wil always be a risk for all tourist attracted countries and for all tourism firms so this means that we all have to be ready and have an action plan and strategies for the potential crisis and most of times this action plans and stretegies need to be flexible and need to be adaptable for new strategies. Analysis and suggestions in this paper are making contribution but there are no success stories as example and detailed information about how to deal with global economic crisis. But based on the results of this study and the realities of today‘s tourism marketplace, the following recommendations are put forth. Firstly, during the global economic crisis, ―price‖ of tourism products and services has become very important factor. So pricing strategies are needed but it should be noted that the tourist is looking for quality and experience and is also willing to pay more for this. The supply side should be sensitive and flexible because they have to compete on the market and should be able to respond on new trends that keep rising especially due to the global economic crisis. Secondly, it can be identified some main ways out of the crisis. These are; intelligent pricing, cooperation between stakeholders, positioning and differentiation of tourism products, innovation and technology as with all other sectors. When SWOT analysis is examined, Turkey may be strong enough to manage these ways. Then, under a plan, the Turkish government is taking steps to protect the tourism industry in the face of global economic crisis with plan of ―Turkey‘s 2023 Tourism Strategy‖. On the other hand, Turkish government and tourism authorities should almost certainly require some revisions to think and act strategically. This will make the strategies adabtable and it wil be easy to cope with the new crisis. Further researches should analyse the effects of crisis on hotels, tourism employees, and related sectors and it is necessary to research what they did and what they will do for the next crisis. References  Akça, 2006. ―Assesment of Rural Tourism in Turkey Using SWOT Analysis‖, Journal of Applied Sciences, 6 (13), pp.2837-2839.  Anderson, 2006. ―Crisis management in the Australian Tourism Industry: Preparedness‖, Personnel and Tourism Management, 27(6), pp.1290-1297.  Athanasopoulos and Hyndman, 2008. ―Modelling and Forecasting Australian Domestic Tourism‖, Tourism Management, 29 (1), pp.19–31.  Blake and Sinclair, 2003. ―Tourism Crisis Management: US Response to September 11‖, Annals of Tourism Research, 30 (4), pp. 813-832.  Buultjens and Howard, 2001. ―Labour Flexibility in the Hospitality Industry: Questioning the Relevance of Deregulation‖, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 13 (2), pp.60–69.  Chu, 2008. ―A Fractionally Integrated Autoregressive Moving Average Approach to Forecasting Tourism Demand‖, Tourism Management, 29 (1). pp.79–88.  Coles, 2003. ―A Local Reading of a Global Disaster: Some Lessons on Tourism Management from an Annus Horribilis in South West England‖, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 15(2/3,4), pp.173–197.  Gürkan, 2009. ‖A SWOT Analysis for 2009‖, http://www.turizmdebusabah.com/haber_detay.asp?haberNo=44183 (Available:28.04.2011).  Henderson, 1999. ―Managing the Asian Financial Crisis: Tourist Attractions in Singapore‖, Journal of Travel Research, 38(2), pp. 177–181.  Hope and Klemm, 2001. ―Tourism in Difficult Areas Revisited: The Case Of Bradford‖, Tourism Management, 22 (4), pp. 629–655.  Huang and Min, 2002. ―Earthquake Devastation and Recovery in Tourism: the Taiwan Case‖, Tourism SESSION 6A: Tourism & IT 389

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