Side conversations and the economy

The balcony restaurant in Side and its proprietor were fabulous and I had one of the best conversations I’d had the entire holiday with the owner (or maitre’de I was never sure which he was). We chuckled as the call to prayer started listening to the poor imam try to do the call to prayer with an obvious cough/cold which cracked his voice more than a few times.

Side is concerned about the economic downturn to be sure. Basically, the Germans always come on all-inclusive holidays so as a group of nationals Side doesnt’ make a lot of money from them overall. They stay in tge resort that line the beachfront between Side and Kumkoy and only walk into Side when they get bored with the pool, beach or buffets.

So, Side’s economy all depends on the Brits and Scandanavians (especially Norwegians) who seems in much shorter supply this year when I was there than makes the business owners of Side comfortable (though they are optimistic that a new direct flight from Bergen and Oslo to Antalya will probably change this for the better.).

There seem to be two modes of thought about the economic downturn and its effects on Side.

Either,

the economic downturn will hurt the English which will keep them away from Side, a potentially disastrous thing for their now-tourst based economy, or

Turkey being a much cheaper destination than say, the South of France or the Spanish Riviera, value-seeking tourists will flow into places like Side as they tighten their belts but still want to take their annual holidays and where the main things holidaymakers are going there for will be sun and surf, dining out in the evenings, and partying into the wee hours.

I guess we’;ll see. Kinda interested to see what the difference is in Side after the summer hits and kinda interested in going back to the place to see what it’s like (though the hyper-package tourism is really not my scene.

The incredible thing to me is how even as far off the beaten track Side seems to be (admittedly, not as far as I thought), the downturn and crisis is still worrying people and their economic wellbeing.