Senior Research Analyst at Euromonitor International Kinda Chebib, a London-based market intelligence firm, said the attack is expected to “impact negatively on inbound flow to Turkey on the short-to-medium term”.
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German chancellor Angela Merkel called an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening to analyse the consequences of the latest terrorist attacks which varied their target but followed the same goal: to undermine “free lives in free societies”.
There has been swift condemnation of the suicide bombing attack in a popular historic district in Istanbul, which killed at least 10 people and injured dozens.
Syrian suicide bomber carried out attack at Sultanahmet Square; numerous victims were German, say reports. It was not clear whether the number included the alleged bomber.
Responding to the attack, Mrs Merkel said: “Today Istanbul was hit; Paris has been hit, Tunisia has been hit, Ankara has been hit before”.
“This incident has once again shown that as a nation we should act as one heart, one body in the fight against terror”, Tayyip Erdogan said during a live television broadcast.
The German Foreign Ministry warned its nationals “to avoid crowds outside tourist attractions in İstanbul” along with public “demonstrations and gatherings”.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed the attack on Islamic State.
The Salafist group claimed responsibility for July 20’s suicide bombing in Suruc, which killed over 30 members of a socialist youth union about to leave for Kobane in Kurdish northern Syria, where they were to help reconstruct the town ravaged by Isis attacks. Kurdish militants and left-wing groups are active in Turkey. Peru has said one of its citizens was also killed in the blast that was claimed by the Islamic State militant group.
The Sultanahmet area was sealed off by police in the event of another explosion, and a police helicopter was dispatched. Private news agency Dogan said the attacker was Syrian, but also born in Saudi Arabia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry in November said 2,719 Russians had left for Syria to fight for Isis.
The Sultanahmet neighbourhood is Istanbul’s main sightseeing area and also includes the Topkapi Palace and the Haghia Sophia museum. The Istanbul governor’s office said the authorities were investigating the type of explosive used and who might have been responsible.
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In October, two ISIL suicide bombers killed and injured more than 100 people at a train station in central Ankara, the capital.
