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Tourists outside a Louis Vuitton shop in Istanbul. Depo Photos/ABACA

Visitors the surprise winners as they queue up to cash in on currency-ravaged Turkey

Long queues formed outside Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Prada outlets in Istanbul after the Turkish lira took a severe hit.

THE COLLAPSE OF the Turkish lira has caused trauma as Turks see their purchasing power slashed, but bargain-hunting foreign tourists visiting the country at the peak of the summer season are cashing in on a currency windfall.

Visitors, mainly from Saudi Arabia and Asia, formed long queues in Istanbul outside luxury stores like Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Prada after the lira took a severe hit against dollar, losing over 16% of its value last Friday.

“Everything is getting cheaper and cheaper,” said Saudi Arabian tourist Nasir El-Nabir, outside a chic store in an upscale Istanbul neighbourhood.

It’s like a 30% sale, so I am really affected in a positive way.

Laden with shopping bags, tourists have enjoyed a shopping bonanza before retailers hike prices to take account of the lira’s devaluation, under the slightly bewildered gaze of Turks who have borne the brunt of the crisis.

The queues suggest that the plunge in the lira, driven by Turkey’s bitter dispute with the United States, is set to give a boost to the key tourism industry, which struggled greatly after a failed coup and terror attacks in 2016.

Tourism revival

The lira’s plunge – which had been ongoing for weeks – was turned into a rout last Friday when US President Donald Trump tweeted that Washington was doubling aluminium and steel tariffs for Turkey.

The Turkish currency has since clawed back some ground.

Xenos Lemis, a tourist from Cyprus, said he had been following the currency drama in real time.

“We check the price of the lira every two hours and there is a significant change. So for shopping for a tourist, this is a blessing,” he added.

But some visitors lamented that they also lost money when they converted a large sum of foreign money to the Turkish currency just before the crisis broke.

“I’m quite surprised because I took a lot of cash from the bank in lira and when I woke up in the morning I found out that I almost lost (the equivalent of) one hundred or two hundred during one night,” Kobe Wu Kejia, a Chinese tourist, told AFP.

This is pretty scary.

Turkey’s tourism sector, which came under severe pressure due to the attacks and failed coup of 2016, had already appeared to have sprung to its feet this year despite the country’s economic woes.

The industry has managed to diversify its appeal, with sharp rises in the numbers of visitors arriving from countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, while traditional tourism from Europe also revived.

Meanwhile, Russian tourism – critical for the economy on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast – has also sprung back to life after being devastated by a political crisis between Ankara and Moscow in 2015.

Firuz Baglikaya, head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB), said there was a 30% increase in tourism in Turkey compared to last year.

“We expect a $32 billion foreign currency inflow,” he told the state-run Anadolu news agency.

“We have a target of having 40 million tourists since 2017, and if there’s nothing negative, this objective will be achieved.”

Package holiday giant Thomas Cook said this month, before the lira crisis struck in earnest, that it has seen a 63% increase in bookings for Turkey from last year, with Antalya now its most popular airport for British holidaymakers.

‘Extra stay’

In Istanbul’s historic Eminonu neighbourhood, tourists expressed mixed feelings about their cheaper vacation in Turkey.

“In the first place of course it’s an advantage for us,” German tourist Barbara said on the Golden Horn, walking with her husband.

“But in second place we also feel kind of sorry because the men in the shop do not earn so much anymore for what it’s worth. So there are these two sides.”

Martin Bifrare, from Switzerland, said he might extend his family vacation with his wife and children over the currency difference.

“With this economic situation, we could decide, for example, to stay an extra week or to allow ourselves a few excursions that we wouldn’t necessarily have done otherwise,” he said.

© AFP 2018 

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:29 AM

    All houses already come with a built-in app to check if there’s a power outage in your area… its called a light switch. :-)

    178
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    Mute Damocles
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:40 AM

    Couldn’t that just mean your trip has tripped?

    25
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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Oct 31st 2012, 11:33 AM

    ..Then simply get a chair from the kitchen and get up and check! :D

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    Mute Andrew Brennan
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    Oct 31st 2012, 12:17 PM

    What is the definition of a shock absorber? A: A careless electrician.

    I’ll get my coat.

    20
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    Mute John Finn
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    Oct 31st 2012, 4:55 PM

    Just because the power to your house is gone doesn’t necessarily mean there is a power outage in your area. It could be a fault in your own electrical installation or it could be that the ESB main fuse has blown. So, no … the light switch is not “a built-in app”.

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    Mute Paddy Mac
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:45 AM

    I hate when your in the middle of typing something and the pow

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    Mute Paul Martin
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:51 AM

    Are released?

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    Mute Kevin O'Sullivan
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:26 AM

    Waterford also had a power outage…

    Non story.

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    Mute Sean Claffey
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:46 AM

    Where the hell is Waterford?

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    Mute terayon100
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    Oct 31st 2012, 2:56 PM

    @Sean

    That’s a bit harsh, just because a town/city is outside the capital doesn’t make it any less important, if that’s what you’re implying.

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    Mute Alan Murphy
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    Oct 31st 2012, 11:52 PM

    A bit of balance would be great. Pretty much a third of the city was out this morning. Big deal in my book

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    Mute Graham Ó Móráin
    Favourite Graham Ó Móráin
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:26 AM

    Where’s Daltry?!

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:27 AM

    That would be Dartry… have fixed the error!

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    Mute Graham Ó Móráin
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:32 AM

    I was thinking :-P

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    Mute Gavin McDonnell
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    Oct 31st 2012, 11:17 AM

    Roger Daltry from the who, he passed out powerless last night

    34
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    Mute jim ahh jim ahh jim
    Favourite jim ahh jim ahh jim
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    Oct 31st 2012, 11:37 AM

    Whatever happened to ‘power cut’ ?
    Who decided it was to be called by the American version ‘outage’

    25
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    Mute Caitríona Sheridan
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    Oct 31st 2012, 12:36 PM

    The technical term in the power systems industry is ‘outage’.

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    Mute jim ahh jim ahh jim
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    Oct 31st 2012, 1:14 PM

    @Catriona
    Interesting, and you sound like you know what you are talking about.

    How do you know this ?
    When did it change in Ireland ?

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    Mute Professor Mehoop
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:32 AM

    Ballsbridge was in the dark this morning? There must be a wise-crack about that….!

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    Mute John Finn
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    Oct 31st 2012, 1:46 PM

    I note one of the the dialogue boxes on the Powercheck website says: “Service Interruption Message:
    We apologise for the loss of supply. We are currently working to repair a fault affecting your premise and will restore power as quickly as possible.”

    I’m afraid someone in ESB Networks doesn’t know the difference between “premise” and “premises”.

    Premise: A previous statement or proposition from which another is inferred or follows as a conclusion.

    Premises: A house or a building.

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    Mute E
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:27 AM

    Is the website up and running? Just tried checking the page and it doesn’t seem to load properly.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:28 AM

    It should be fixed now if you try it again

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    Mute E
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    Oct 31st 2012, 10:32 AM

    Just tried it again… accessed it differently and it works fine.

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    Mute Andrew Brennan
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    Oct 31st 2012, 12:22 PM

    You can always trust the ESB to deal with current events.

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    Mute ronan kelly
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    Oct 31st 2012, 2:35 PM

    Must be a slow news day!!! The rest of Ireland could have no power but the poor dubs have to have a story loike!

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    Mute Marcus Kiely
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    Oct 31st 2012, 11:08 AM

    In a word, SO!!

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    Mute Luca Costa
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    Oct 31st 2012, 11:24 AM

    Bleedin frankenstorm.

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    Mute Sara Hogan
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    Oct 21st 2016, 11:14 AM

    Power was off in Rathfarnham, Dublin 14 for three hours last night.

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    Mute Dave Mullen
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    Sep 13th 2013, 11:56 AM

    Power outage for approx 3 hours in parts of Greystones this morning also.

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    Mute Louise Reid Mc Hugh
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    Oct 31st 2012, 11:10 AM

    Power, we have know water since yesterday evening :-( Glasanaon road, D 11

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