Booze-free zones

last updated 8 January 2015

Istanbul

Turkey plans to attract devout Muslim tourists by creating alcohol-free zones in major cities. The government, currently led by an Islamic party, first proposed the zones as a moral reform last year, but ran into opposition from the business community. Now the plan is back as a tourism initiative. Ali Bayramoglu, head of the Turkish-Saudi Economic Cooperation Council, told the Istanbul newspaper Vatan that the alcohol-free zones would pay for themselves in increased Saudi investment and tourism. Recent experience, though, indicates otherwise. Some Turkish regions with local governments controlled by Islamists have limited the sale of alcohol and seen local revenues drop precipitously.