News Analysis: Turkey's tourism sector divided over ban on booking.com

Representatives from Turkey's tourism sector are divided over a recent court ban on operations by Dutch online travel agent, booking.com, in the country.

The court's ruling came in a case opened by the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB), the country's leading tourism institution, against booking.com for unfair competition against local travel agencies.

Following the court order, booking.com, which books over one million hotel rooms per day in 225 countries, suspended its operation in Turkey last week.

"Our local online reservation portals couldn't handle booking.com's low prices," said Serdar Ibis, board member of Turkey's inbound travel company Dorak-Itir Tour.

Ibis claimed that booking.com was neither paying taxes nor obliged to hire personnel as its local competitors and other tour operators in Turkey do. "Therefore it had a chance to rent hotel rooms from very reasonable prices when compared with travel agencies' prices," he said.

"Booking.com is a good portal for people to book hotel rooms in a very short time period or even instantly," he added. "But in Turkey, it has to open a branch here and obey the same rules and regulations of similar companies."

The ban should not be seen as a solution in a world which is becoming more digitalized each day, said Murat Ozbilgi, head of gezimanya.com, a tourism portal operating in Turkey.

He argued that the current system should adapt itself to the changing rules of the global world. "Fluctuation in prices, unfair competition, etc., should be all fought within the boundaries of laws," he added.

Turkish media reported on Tuesday that the Netherlands-based booking.com does not agree on the Turkish ruling.

"All of our activities in Turkey are carried out in accordance with the laws of Turkey," the online travel agent was quoted as saying in a statement by the Hurriyet daily. "We firmly believe that this process will lead to a positive outcome for us, and our Turkish customers will soon begin to enjoy the pleasure of all our services."

Sector representatives in Turkey are also divided on the impact of the ban on the country's already flagging tourism, a sector hit hard by terror attacks and political uncertainty over the past year.

Ankara lately found itself embroiled in a dispute with several European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, over their ban on Turkish ministers joining local rallies for an upcoming referendum on boosting the Turkish presidential powers.

The disputes have affected the decisions of European holidaymakers in choosing their destinations, according to Ozbilgi.

Small hotel owners and several sector representatives argued that the ban on booking.com would further harm Turkey's fragile tourism sector.

"It is as if someone intentionally sits and finds the best way to sink the entire sector," said Irfan Alis, owner of a corner shop in a hotel in Turkey's western city of Izmir.

In Ozbilgi's view, small businesses are going to be hurt in particular as a result of the ban, as they cannot easily reach customers. "Yes, big hotels and tour operators will make profit out of the ban but the small hotels will definitively lose," he said.

"We were having a significant number of trustworthy, financially reliable and qualified European tourists via booking.com," said Murat Orekli, owner of a small hotel in Turkey's northwestern island of Bozcada. "Now all are gone."

While the dispute is continuing, local media reported that TURSAB was considering opening cases against other online travel agents such as Germany's trivago.com and American tripadvisor.com.

"The association will take legal action against those who do not comply," the Milliyet daily said.

Some believed that if happens, it would be the end of the entire sector. Endit