Airport blasts slam Turkey's struggling tourism industry

Istanbul : Turkey's already limping tourism industry is suffering a fresh grievous blow after the latest in a series of attacks targeted at tourists claimed dozens of lives, analysts said Wednesday.

"This is very bad news for tourism and more generally for air travel. It's an attack that directly targeted travellers." said Jean-Pierre Mas, head of French travel agencies association Entreprises du Voyage.

The suicide bombings at Istanbul's Ataturk airport -- which also left hundreds wounded - come just days after Kurdish separatists issued a warning to travellers against visiting the country.

"Foreigners are not our target but Turkey is not a safe country for them," said the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) group as they claimed responsibility for a June 7 car bombing that killed 11 people in Istanbul's Beyazit district.

Now bombers believed to be linked to the Islamic State jihadist group have 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," the analyst went on.

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 global player.

On the back of 13.6 percent growth in passenger numbers in 2015, Turkish had targeted a 2.1 percent global market share in 2016, which would place it in the top 10 airlines worldwide.

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, one of the most modern in the world, in the wake of multiple bombings that have driven away business.