ISTANBUL, Turkey – The Turkish tourism industry has been seriously affected by the recent tension between former allies Turkey and Israel.

The Turkish economy has lost at least USD 400 million due to reservation cancellations from Israeli tourists, according to tourism agencies.

Some 50,000 Israelis have cancelled their reservations indefinitely. Furthermore, the Israel Travel Agents Association has announced that it cancelled 100,000 reservations out of a total of 150,000.

According to a survey commissioned by the TravelList price comparison company, 84% of Israelis are refusing to travel to Turkey, 9% are waiting for a reconciliation meeting between Israeli and Turkish leaders before they decide what to do, and only 4% believe that Israelis can still travel to Turkey regardless of the security situation.