ISTANBUL: Turkey’s already limping tourism industry is suffering a fresh blow from a few recent attacks aimed at tourists that took several lives, analysts said on Wednesday. The suicide bombings at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport – which also left over 200 wounded – come just weeks after Kurdish separatists issued a warning to travellers against visiting the country as they claimed responsibility for a June 7 car bombing. For a destination which has sold itself to potential visitors from abroad using its monuments – especially sites like the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia church in the heart of Istanbul – the explosions are economically devastating. “This is a bad news for tourism and for air travel. It’s an attack that directly targeted travellers,” said French travel agencies association Entreprises du Voyage Head Jean-Pierre Mas. Figures released by the Turkish Tourism Ministry showed that the month of May had already seen the worst drop-off in visits in 22 years, down 35 percent on 2015’s figure. The ban on Russians from travelling to Turkey also added to the fallout of tourists. However, the ban was lifted on Wednesday. UN World Tourism Organisation Head Taleb Rifai said in a statement that the terror attack was evidence of a threat the tourism sector was facing worldwide. “In Tuesday’s attacks, bombers believed to be linked to the Islamic State militants, struck at the home of flag carrier Turkish Airlines and the hub of the tourism industry,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkey research programme at the Washington Institute. “It’s Istanbul’s second most emblematic location after Taksim square,” he said. Turkish Airlines – which in May posted a massive loss of $421 million for the first quarter of 2016 – is ‘the only Turkish company known abroad’, Cagaptay pointed out. The conservative government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had hoped to make the 49-percent state-owned carrier a top-ten global player. Adverts for the airline have been prominent at June’s Euro 2016 football tournament in France as it seeks to woo passengers back aboard its fleet in the wake of multiple bombings that drove away business. – ‘Tourist hotspots’ – 2016 has seen a slew of mass killings in Turkey, several blamed on either Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) separatists or the Islamic State militants. Over the year till June, almost 200 people have been killed and thousands wounded in bombings in Istanbul and Ankara. A bombing against Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet square in January claimed the lives of 11 German tourists, while three Israelis and an Iranian also died in Istiklal shopping street blast in March. Both attacks were blamed on the Islamic State militants. Meanwhile, the February and March car bombings in Ankara claimed by TAK killed at least 63 people. The result has been a meltdown for an industry which ordinarily brings in close to 30 billion euros ($33.2 billion) in foreign currency each year. – ‘Russia lifts ban’ – Almost 90 percent of Russian visitors have stayed away as Ankara and Moscow entered a war of words after Turkish forces downed a Russian warplane in November. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he would lift the travel restrictions put in place after the incident as relations thawed between Ankara and Moscow. This step still fails to plug the gap created by Turkey’s 23 percent plunge in tourist numbers over the first five months of the year. In the face of the bombings, the government offered a few millions of euros in subsidies to the stricken tourism sector. French travel expert Mas said that he has already seen a 61 percent fall in the number of people booking holidays in Turkey for this summer. “This drop will inevitably worsen,” he said.