Geography of Turkish Soap Operas: Tourism, Soft Power, and Alternative Narratives

GeoJournal Library 121 Istvan Egresi Editor Alternative Tourism in Turkey Role, Potential Development and Sustainability GeoJournal Library Volume 121 Managing Editor Daniel Z. Sui, College Station, USA Founding Series Editor Wolf Tietze, Helmstedt, Germany Editorial Board Paul Claval, France Yehuda Gradus, Israel Sam Ock Park, South Korea Herman van der Wusten, The Netherlands More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6007 Istvan Egresi Editor Alternative Tourism in Turkey Role, Potential Development and Sustainability 123 Editor Istvan Egresi Department of Geography Fatih University Istanbul Turkey ISSN 0924-5499 GeoJournal Library ISBN 978-3-319-47535-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47537-0 ISSN 2215-0072 (electronic) ISBN 978-3-319-47537-0 (eBook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953658 © Springer International Publishing AG 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Contents Part I Setting the Context 1 Globalization, Mass Tourism, and Sustainable Development . . . . . . Istvan Egresi 3 2 History of Tourism Development in Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Medet Yolal 23 3 Tourism and Sustainability in Turkey: Negative Impact of Mass Tourism Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Istvan Egresi Part II 35 Introducing Alternative Tourism 4 Alternative Tourism: Definition and Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . Istvan Egresi 5 Nature-Based Tourism in Turkey: The Yayla in Turkey’s Eastern Black Sea Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Faruk Alaeddinoğlu and Mehmet Şeremet 57 71 6 Geotourism in Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gülpınar Akbulut 7 Between Traditional and Modern: Thermal Tourism in Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 İsmail Kervankıran 8 Great Potential of the Colourful Cultural Heritage of Turkey: Ethnic Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Vedat Çalışkan 9 Festivals as a Short-Duration Tourism Attraction in Turkey. . . . . . 141 Gökçe Özdemir 87 ix x Contents 10 Religious Tourism in Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Nuray Türker 11 Dark Tourism and Its Potential in Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Nedim Yüzbaşıoğlu and Yunus Topsakal 12 Medical Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Emine Yilmaz Karakoc 13 Shopping and Tourism in Turkey: The Perfect Combination . . . . . 211 Istvan Egresi and Serdar Arslan 14 Local Gastronomy: A Tasty Tourist Attraction in Turkey . . . . . . . 229 Istvan Egresi and Meryem Buluç 15 Geography of Turkish Soap Operas: Tourism, Soft Power, and Alternative Narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Necati Anaz and Ceyhun Can Ozcan 16 The Role and Potential of Halal Tourism in Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 Fikret Tuna Part III Assessing Alternative Tourism 17 Post-Fordism, Alternative Tourism and Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Istvan Egresi 18 Beyond Fordism and Flexible Specialization in Antalya’s Mass-Tourism Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Pieter Terhorst and Hilal Erkuş-Öztürk 19 An Alternative View of Ecotourism with a Specific Reference to Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Nazmiye Erdoğan and İrfan Erdoğan 20 The Challenges on Sustainability of Alternative Forms of Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 Ferhan Gezici and Güliz Salihoğlu 21 Community-Based Tourism as Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . 333 Hazel Tucker 22 Public Policy and Sustainable Alternative Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Fatma Gül Turanlıgil Chapter 15 Geography of Turkish Soap Operas: Tourism, Soft Power, and Alternative Narratives Necati Anaz and Ceyhun Can Ozcan 15.1 Introduction As many academics have argued (Graziano 2015; Hudson and Ritchie 2006; Yilmaz and Yolal 2008; Connel 2012; Balli et al. 2013; Tooke and Baker 1996), film-induced tourism, a type of mobility that is influenced by the destination being featured on television, video, or the cinema screen, is becoming a ‘growing phenomenon worldwide, fueled by both the growth of the entertainment industry and the increase in international travel’ (Hudson and Ritchie 2006: 387; Tuclea and Nistoreanu 2011). Parallel to this development, academics’ interest in studying multifaceted dynamics of this sociocultural, political, and economic phenomenon is also growing (Nordicity 2013; Lorenzen 2008; Anaz 2014; Totry and Medzini 2013; Irimias 2015). Although difficult to prove, many believe that destinations represented positively in these types of media can greatly impact the number of tourists visiting those sites (Irimias 2015; Bagnoli 2015). Since measuring the number of incoming tourists is difficult, scholars in the field tend to rather analyze a specific film or TV show that features a certain location or a city. For instance, D’Alessandro and colleagues have studied the possible connections between cinema films, city-branding, and place image in the case of Naples, particularly focusing on changing representations of the city through films (D’Alessandro et al. 2015). Bagnoli, on the other hand, has analyzed how the growth in the number of N. Anaz (&) Department of Political Science and International Relations, Istanbul University, Beyazit Campus, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey e-mail: necatianaz@hotmail.com C.C. Ozcan Department of Management and Tourism, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey e-mail: ccozcan@konya.edu.tr © Springer International Publishing AG 2016 I. Egresi (ed.), Alternative Tourism in Turkey, GeoJournal Library 121, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47537-0_15 247 248 N. Anaz and C.C. Ozcan incoming tourists to Highclere Castle and the Village of Bampton in Oxfordshire is related to the television period drama ‘Downton Abbey’ (Bagnoli 2015). Fans’ motivations to travel to a specific destination ranges widely and is often unique to the individual, and frequently internalized and ill defined (Roberson and Grady 2015: 48). Still, some scholars argue that the audiences’ interest in a certain place or location can be motivated by well-positioned scenery, storylines events, and actors (Lopez et al. 2015: 20). Moreover, people are motivated to visit particular places and influenced by specific images, memories, and emotional attachments to those places and meanings presented in television series and films (Lopez et al. 2015: 20). Therefore, popularly produced and consumed products become part and parcel of strategic investments to build the image of tourist destinations. A successful film or TV show can create a positive image of a location and its sociocultural and economic situations, and the location featured may be changed as a result of film-induced tourism. Recent studies have noted a number of cases where screened images helped to significantly increase the number of tourist visits to a location (Lopez et al. 2015). Films such as Braveheart (1995), The Sea Inside (2004), and Troy (2004) have strongly impacted the flow of tourists to Scotland, Spain, and Çanakkale (Turkey), respectively (Graziano 2015) (Table 15.1). Other films helped to promote locations of the production as is the case of Malta where some well-known high-budget movies were filmed (Graziano 2015). Although not adequately researched to date, filmed narratives can significantly impact people’s perception of a location in a negative way which in turn can damage tourism to the location. One good example of this is Allan Parker’s Midnight Express (1978). The film storylines the character Billy Hayes’s prison time in Turkey and what he went through to get out of the country. Soon after the release of the film, negative images of Turkey began to materialize within the discourse of geographic imaginations of the East (Anaz and Purcell 2010; Yanmaz 2011). While it may be almost impossible to exactly measure how much films such Table 15.1 Film tourism impacts Film or TV series Location Impact on visitor numbers or tourist revenue Braveheart Wallace Monument, Scotland (UK) Southfork Ranch, Dallas (USA) National parks in Sydney (Australia) Lyme Park in Cheshire (UK) 300 % increase in visitors year after release 500,000 visitors per year Dallas Mission: Impossible 2 Pride and Prejudice Miami Vice Miami (USA) 200 % increase in 2000 UK 150 % increase in visitors 150 % increase in German visitors 1985–1988 Troy Çanakkale (Turkey) 73 % increase in tourism Sources The table is modified from Simon Hudson and J.R. Bretri Chie’s article (2006) 15 Geography of Turkish Soap Operas … 249 as Midnight Express have influenced the number of tourists who decided not to visit Turkey, one cannot fully reject the potential of such biased entertainment product abilities to harm the image of a certain location and its people. Negative images of a country and its people can greatly impact the actions of prospective visitors. One of the important scholars of ‘Orientalism,’ Edward Said, repeatedly emphasized that Western movies are loaded with negative images of Muslims and Arabs, portraying them as inferior, backward, and dangerous people, living in crowded streets and being constantly angry (Said 1978). These angry Arabs always hate Westerners and their lifestyle and blame the Westerners for their predicament. This kind of sweeping generalizations about Muslims and especially Arabs (many times the two are used interchangeably) causes them become ‘dangerous others’ in the eyes of Western visitors. In this kind of representation of course, one should not expect to see Western tourists visiting a Muslim country or a touristic site. Therefore, it is vital that films and other forms of visual entertainment products carry positive images about a country and its people even when the narrative is, in fact, not about that country, its people, or their culture. These images can easily escape from the first glance but are powerful enough to create ‘common knowledge’ about certain geography and can be the most dangerous ones. Ultimately via these images, viewers will be informed about different people and places. As a result, misinformed viewers will try to avoid visiting people and places they perceive as dangerous. 15.2 Turkish Soap Operas Abroad Turkish soap operas have successfully captured the attention of millions of viewers from all around the world. They have become a source of entertainment and a platform from where old customs and religious values are challenged (Anaz 2014). Dubbed Turkish dramas have met with world audiences from the Balkans to the Middle East and North Africa. Arab viewers showed a particularly great interest in Turkish TV dramas. For instance, the series ‘Gumus,’ popularly known in the Arab world as ‘Nour,’ was very popular and its finale was viewed by about 85 million people (Salamandra 2012). Turkish soap operas are distributed to more than 75 countries and attract more than 400 million viewers from all around the world (Turk 2014). According to the CEO of Global Agency, Izzet Pinto, the Turkish soap opera sector, became the second most exported TV series product after Hollywood (Turk 2014). Because of this increasing interest in Turkish soap operas, millions of Arab visitors chose Istanbul and other parts of Turkey as their vacation and shopping destination (The Guardian 2010), and Turkish products became a high-end fashion choice for many Arab consumers (Anaz 2014). Turkish soap operas not only persuaded many viewers from all over the world to visit Turkey and/or consume Turkish products, but also (and perhaps even more so) impacted the lives of many viewers, especially youth and women, in the Balkans and the Middle East (Anaz 2014). For instance, the Turkish drama series Fatmagul 250 N. Anaz and C.C. Ozcan (2010–2012) inspired Arab women, who realized they were not alone in their struggle, to speak out for their rights, and to take the matter into their own hands instead of accepting their faith quietly (Paschalidou 2014). In this series, Fatmagul, the main character, plays the role of a victimized young girl who is raped by several drunk passers-by and had to face the reality of local norms and also challenge the stigmatized conception of customs and perceptions toward a nefariously touched girl before her marriage. In Paschalidou’s article, Samira, an activist in Cairo, speaks about why post-Arab spring Egyptian women need TV series such as Fatmagul to help them talk about their rights within their society. Samira who took an active role in the revolution and suffered from sexual abuse by an army official says ‘we need Turkish TV series like “Fatmagul” that talk openly about women’s rights’ (Paschalidou 2014: 3). According to Paschalidou, Samira sues the military for sexual abuse and wins the case which in the end results in ending virginity tests in Egypt. The above-mentioned personal stories indicate that television dramas, like any other popular products, are not only the part and parcel of entertainment, and thus instruments of escapism, but also inspirational visual imageries that often challenge, contradict, and enforce social identities, values, and conditions of everyday lives of people, places, and events (Power and Crampton 2007; Aitken and Zonn 1994). Unlike scholars from other disciplines engaged with films, television series, and other forms of visual texts, geographers are mainly interested in making explicit geographic connections between images and effects of those images in real locations (Lukinbeal and Zimmerman 2006). Therefore, a call for investigating Turkish television dramas in the Mediterranean region and various viewers’ experiences with Turkish soap operas is crucial, partially because, as Zonn highlights, ‘watching movies is about place and experience, and the myriad of possibilities and stories that surround them’ (Zonn 2007: 64). While Turkish soap operas make alternative sociocultural spatial imaginations available for different audiences such as women and the youth, at the same time, romanticized locations attract many who want to experience these imaginary places in Turkey. A great number of Arab fans of Turkish drama series, for example, want to visit the actual sites where those dramas were filmed in Istanbul (Anaz 2014). This tells us that fans of television drama series engage differently with Turkish soap operas than with Latin American telenovelas which for a long time had dominated the Balkan and the Middle Eastern television landscape (Nuroglu 2013). Fans of Turkish TV dramas can actually travel to Turkey and experience the sites where everything happened and be an eyewitness to the inner world of drama-making process. This, no doubt, helps viewers more easily connect with locations that are actually accessible to them. The question of why Turkish TV dramas have recently captured the interest of millions of people from outside of Turkey is a critical one as is also the question on the impact of these series on Turkish tourism. First of all, is there a connection between the increased popularity of Turkish TV drama series and the growing number of visitors to Turkey? So far, not a lot of scholarly work has been published on this issue, perhaps also because, if there is a connection, it would be difficult to prove using standard quantitative methods. However, we maintain that there are significant and tangible indications that the number of tourists coming to Turkey and the recent popularity of 15 Geography of Turkish Soap Operas … 251 Table 15.2 Number of tourists coming to Turkey and Turkish soaps sold to these countriesa Kazakhstan Number of tourists visited Turkey Soaps sold (by hours) Iran Number of tourists visited Turkey Soaps sold (by hours) Bulgaria 2001–2011 (% change) 733.8 343.0 2005–2011 (% change) 96.3 147.8 2007–2011 (% change) Number of tourists visited Turkey 20.3 Soaps sold (by hours) 99.7 a Data used in this table do not necessarily overlap actual hours of soap sold to these countries. Instead, the table shows how much data are available to evaluate the case. We believe that for instance, Bulgaria continued importing Turkish soaps after 2011 Turkish TV dramas abroad are positively correlated. For instance, Table 15.2 shows that the number of tourists coming to Turkey from Kazakhstan, Iran, and Bulgaria increased as the number of soap operas exported to these countries grew. Although making direct correlation between the two items is difficult, we can argue that soap operas help potential tourists to choose Turkey over a number of other possible destination sites, as has also been suggested by other studies (Nuroglu 2013). As this study points out, the second-hand data collected tell us that popularity of Turkish TV dramas may have influenced the number of tourists coming to Turkey or/and, at least, it may have affected their choice of destinations visited in Turkey (especially in Istanbul). Turkey has, no doubt, benefited from all this extra publicity from the TV drama series, film sites, and its culture and social life (Fig. 15.1). An analysis of touristic data categorized by years will shed some light on possible connections between Turkish TV dramas and the number of visitors to Turkey (see Table 15.2). However, as this study clearly highlights, a more comprehensive and fieldwork-oriented data collection is necessary to understand the direct link between the two. In terms of the sociopolitical and cultural benefits of the TV dramas, a more comprehensive approach would be necessary to see what different world audiences do as they are reached by Turkish TV soap operas. This study, thus, aims to bring a more modest contribution to this inquiry by analyzing Turkey’s recent incoming tourist numbers and numbers of increasing market for Turkish TV drama abroad. According to Waheed Samy, the general manager of the Egypt-based Memphis Tours, the number of tourists that his firm sends to Turkey has increased recently and this growth, in his opinion, has much to do with the popularity of Turkish TV series in Egypt (Al-Monitor 2012). He has also highlighted that this heightened interest in Turkey is visible not only in Egypt but also in other Arab states (Al-Monitor 2012), an observation which is also shared by other second-hand sources consulted for this work. 252 N. Anaz and C.C. Ozcan Fig. 15.1 Total number of tourists compared to the number of tourists coming countries where soap operas are exported Fig. 15.2 Total number of tourists from the Middle Eastern countries As Fig. 15.2 shows, the number of tourists coming from selected Middle Eastern countries reached about 3 million in 2013 from about half million in 2001. Tourism experts and travel agents have interpreted the growing number of tourists as reflection of the success of the Turkish TV products in the tourists’ country of origin. For instance, the number of tourists coming from Egypt grew by about 380 percent over 12 years (see Table 15.3). As it might be expected, the increase in tourist numbers should not be automatically associated with the amount of time Turkish TV products are aired in Egypt but we argue that Turkish soap opera culture consumed in Egypt must have had a positive implication (see Anaz’s article). We need to mention here that other current political and social developments between Turkey and the Middle Eastern countries might have also influenced the increasing mobility between Turkey and the Arab states. One factor we should highlight is the easing of the visa regulations between Turkey and the Arab countries in the region. Another factor affecting the number of 15 Geography of Turkish Soap Operas … 253 Table 15.3 Change in number of tourists coming to Turkey according to years (%) U.A.E. Bahrain Algeria Morocco Iraq Iran Qatar Kuwait Libyan A.J. Lebanon Egypt Sudan Tunisia Jordan Yemen Total 2001–2005 2005–2010 2001–2013 159.4 79.8 12.4 111.4 559.2 192.6 221.0 108.2 −6.8 83.9 92.7 46.6 35.9 62.4 78.6 148.0 245.8 123.2 51.5 130.6 159.6 96.9 209.1 146.1 107.7 227.6 42.7 129.0 −5.3 121.0 150.9 101.4 1442.8 594.5 196.2 600.5 4361.1 265.8 2959.1 1557.1 739.7 543.1 379.7 371.6 103.9 282.2 1125.6 444.5 tourists coming to Turkey might be the growing economic exchanges between Turkey and Arab countries. The volume of foreign trade between Turkey and the Arab world was about 5 billion dollars in 2005. This number increased to almost 55 billion dollars in 2013 and is projected to surge to around 155 billion in 2023 (Hurriyet Daily News 2013). This is, no doubt, an indication that the mobility of people and goods between Turkey and the Arab world has increased year after year and Turkish popular products may have been one factor that has contributed to this. Although it is difficult to determine to what extent film/TV soap operas-induced tourism has impacted Turkey’s economy, the direct contribution of travel and tourism to GDP was 4.7 % of total GDP in 2014 and forecasted to rise 11.6 % in 2025 (Turner 2014). Similarly after the ease of visa regulations, Saudi Arabian tourists’ expenditures in Turkey increased by 72 % in 2014 over the previous year, equal to 94 million Euros. Arab tourists’ spending varies from jewelry to clothing and services such as wedding in Istanbul, the old imperial capital (Toksabay 2011). Turkey’s cheaper all-inclusive packages are another factor that attracts Arab tourists along with European and Russian tourists to the large Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Turkey’s income from tourism rose by 6.2 % compared to the year before reaching to 34.3 billion dollars in 2014 (Sabah 2015). According to the Interbank Card Centre, in the last five years, about 97 billion US Dollars have been withdrawn from foreign-issued credit cards (in the form of cash withdrawal or electronic transactions) in Turkey (Milliyet 2015). It is widely accepted among scholars that soap operas, cinema, and similar popular cultural products can enhance the image of a country in the eyes of people from other nations (Zayed 2013; Bagnoli 2015; D’Alessandro et al. 2015). Soap 254 N. Anaz and C.C. Ozcan operas and movies are the cheapest way to advertise the beauty of Turkey. Although cheap, this type of advertisement is highly effective, especially in the Gulf States. For example, in 2013 the number of Saudi Arabian tourists to Turkey was expected to surge to more than 100,000 people (Zayed 2013). Despite the war at the southern border of Turkey, this number is unlikely to be reduced dramatically because Turkey is considered a relatively cheap and safe destination by Arab tourists. 15.3 Social Challenges and Alternative Narratives A major point that we would like to underline is that Turkish soap operas challenge existing sociocultural roles within Arab societies and provide an alternative view of the world, where ‘women are treated with respect and love, and the romance that seems so unreal in their situation becomes a reality’ (Paschalidou 2014). This is not to say that these social qualities do not exist in Arab societies; rather, it means that Turkish TV series openly offer viewers alternative narratives that are generally considered to be a taboo subject. Turkish drama series provide a comfort zone, partially insulating the viewers from the harsh reality and creating a parallel reality in which life is beautiful (Paschalidou 2014). Another point to highlight here is that television productions as a form of everyday image-based language can provide better ways of framing a radically changing geopolitical world and everyday social relations within a society (Power and Crampton 2007). Even the most complicated and problematic issues of sociocultural and political occurrences can be expressed smoothly through visual narratives and artistic forms. Under the circumstances, Turkish soap operas’ indisputable ability to present the Turkish way of life which is presumed to be juxtaposing European modernity and Islamic values, for sure, charms viewers as well as academics. Turkish TV series’ contradicting secularist and even propagandist qualities attract millions to the screens and, at the same time, are heavily criticized. Within the scope of this study, we also explored two sets of questions. The first set of questions included: What is the influence of Turkish soap operas on Egyptian people, mainly students, in terms of their understanding of Turkish culture and Turkey’s role in the Middle East? What kind of Turkish television series do they watch and what actors/actress they favor? The second set of questions included: Why do people watch Turkish TV series? What do they do with them? Furthermore, how can Egyptian audiences’ interpretations of Turkish soap operas be conceptualized, signified, and classified? How and to what degree does Egyptian society interpret Turkish television series? And how can their meaning making be read and codified? As mentioned, this paper has also tried to highlight how much and to what extent Turkish television series can have the potential to project social, political, moral, and cultural perspectives for audiences in Egypt and in the Arab world in general. Considering Turkey’s continuing efforts to open new pages with the Islamic and Arab world, especially since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) took control 15 Geography of Turkish Soap Operas … 255 of the government in Turkey, every possible instrument of ‘soft power’ became the interest of academics and public diplomacy (Cevik 2014). Thus, the role of Turkish television series in the Arab world is worthy of investigation and the viewers’ opinions of the series matter particularly when taking into account the recent deteriorating relations between Turkey and Egypt. Turkish policy makers therefore take popular products seriously, especially when they produce effects in the so-called Ottoman Empire’s influence areas. Turkish soap operas, for this very reason, are a valuable soft power asset for Turkey and thus worthy of investigation. When one looks at the popular journal articles produced in Turkish, Arabic, and English, one notices that there is increasing interest in Turkish television series from many corners of the globe, including minority populations of North America (TRT Haber 2013). The popularity of Turkish soap operas is particularly rising in the Arab world. For instance, Jumana Al Tamimi, an associate editor of Gulf News based in Dubai, has reported that a few years ago Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’ad Al Hariri paid a visit to a group of orphans during Ramadan. When he asks the children there what they would want to have the most, their replies caught him off-guard. He expected, like everyone else, that children would ask for material things, such as toys or bicycles; instead, they asked to meet Noor, the main character in the Turkish TV series Gumus (dubbed as Nour in Arabic) and played by the Turkish actress Songul Oden. Then Al Hariri asked his advisers to arrange a meeting with Noor. This and similar anecdotes show that Turkish soap operas are no longer foreign or unreachable for the Arab viewers. It can also be inferred from this anecdote that the stars of Turkish series are not similar to those of Hollywood who can only be seen in one’s dream. In the minds of Arab viewers, Turkish stars are reachable and their personal stories and narratives in which they act present cultural similarities with the everyday life of viewers from Arab countries. As this study highlights, it is partially the cultural and geographical proximity of the narratives and dramatized life of Turkish people that make Turkish drama series successful abroad, especially in the Arab world. 15.4 Conclusion Without a doubt, Turkish cinema and TV series, exported to more than a hundred countries, have become one of the most effective ways of promoting tourism in Turkey. According to our study, the increasing number of tourists coming to Turkey parallels with the number of hours of exported Turkish TV drama series. Although more studies are needed to confirm this correlation, the present study has shown that the visit of many tourists coming to Turkey especially from the Arab world is some way film-induced. Indeed, both the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry and many travel agencies share the view that Turkish soap operas and films have positively impacted Turkey’s visibility abroad, especially in the Muslim countries. One officer in the Culture and Tourism Ministry in Turkey noted that: 256 N. Anaz and C.C. Ozcan In 2012, despite problems at our southern borders, we hosted some 32 million foreign tourists. Turkey gets nearly $25 billion in income from tourism. All people in the sector try to promote the country to the world but the most effective promotion is that of culture and arts. As a result of these efforts, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry was chosen as the best tourism organization in Europe last year in Portugal. This is the result of our synergy. (Cited in Zayed 2013) Another diplomat commented on the success of the Turkish soap operas on attracting more tourists to the country. He said: ‘from 41,000 tourists last year to 100,000 this year—the same year this show became phenomenally successful…, it is more than just a coincidence’ (Cited in Zayed 2013). It is clear that Turkish drama presents a unique way of promoting Turkey’s cinema-landscape which in the end influences millions, especially from the Muslim world, to visit Turkey and those Turkish cities where those dramas were filmed. Another factor that this study focused on is the Turkish popular cultures’ impact on Turkish soft power on peoples of different nations and those cultural products’ sociocultural effects on viewers in the Arab world. This study argued that Turkish dramas are not welcomed by every sector of the Arab society. Some heavily criticized Turkish dramas’ negative influence on the youth and women (Anaz 2014). However, Turkish dramas have become successful on bringing alternative narratives to those who have felt bored with both monotonous Arab dramas and culturally alien Western soaps. As a Muslim country, Turkey passed the cultural and political border of the Middle East, Balkans, and the Caucasus to reach the viewers who have similar taste in drama watching. These Turkish cultural products, no doubt, filled the gap with their loaded modern, culturally authentic TV stories and successful acting. References Aitken, S., & Zonn, L. (1994). Re-presenting the place pastiche. In S. Aitken & L. Zonn (Eds.), In place, power, situation and spectacle: A geography of film (pp. 3–26). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. Al-Monitor. (2012). Al-Monitor.com. 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