Turkey has pinned its hopes on Arab tourists to make up for a serious decline in its vital tourism sector, which is struggling under a combination of blows, including the crisis with Russia, the ramifications of the civil war in neighboring Syria, a string of bomb attacks in big cities, the violent conflict in the Kurdish-majority southeast, the July 15 coup attempt and tensions with the European Union. To boost the tourist flow from Arab countries, Turkish entrepreneurs are planning to build special vacation spaces for Arabs.

According to Rifat Hisarciklioglu, the head of Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, economic ties between Turkey and Arab countries have grown impressively in the past 15 years, with the trade volume increasing 7.5 times to $47 billion and the number of Arab tourists growing nine times to some 3 million.

Turkey received 2.78 million tourists from Arab countries in 2013, 2.5 million in 2014 and 2.95 million in 2015. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in May that the target was 10 million Arab tourists per year. Describing efforts to overcome the absence of Russian tourists, he said that work was underway to build an “Arab village” in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, Turkey’s main tourism hub.

The idea for Arab holiday villages in Turkey was first suggested by the head of the Arab Tourism Organization, Bandar bin Fahad Al Fehaid, in February. “I think Arabs will be flocking to Turkey for health tourism. The first steps related to health tourism have been taken already. A big project is underway in Bursa,” Fehaid said, referring to the northwestern Turkish city that is famous for its Ottoman heritage and natural riches. Pledging help to lure more Arabs to Antalya as well, he said, “We’ll discuss with the authorities the Arab tourists’ demands concerning places of accommodation.”