Let’s all head to Turkey!
Lira’s crash sees pound worth 60% more than last summer
UK tourists are set to benefit from Turkey’s financial crisis as the lira’s instability continued today.
Holidaymakers can expect to pay just £1.45 for a bottle of beer or £37 for a family meal for four this summer, according to the Post Office.
Prices of items such as meals, drinks and beach equipment have fallen by an average of 43 per cent since last year.
Yesterday, the pound was worth 60 per cent more against the Turkish lira than 2017, prompting a surge in the number of families travelling there on holiday.
Brits were able to exchange £500 for 3,443.50 lira compared with just 2,148.60 lira in August 2017.
The crash comes amid the ongoing diplomatic row between the US and Turkey over an American pastor alleged to have been involved in the Middle Eastern country’s 2016 attempted coup.
Yesterday, a Turkish court refused to release Andrew Brunson from house arrest despite US Treasury chief Steve Munchin warning of more sanctions if he was not freed. If convicted, he faces up to 35 years in jail.
Yesterday, US president Donald Trump said: ‘They should have given him back a long time ago and Turkey has in my opinion acted very, very badly.
‘We are not going to take it sitting down.’ The row follows USimposed sanctions on two Turkish ministers and doubled tariffs on its steel and aluminum imports.
Turkey retaliated with tariffs on some US imports and said it would boycott US electronic goods.
The Turkish lira stood at 5.80 against the dollar on Friday after record lows in the week.
This week, Antalya airport in southern Turkey has welcomed more flights from the UK than the popular Spanish islands of Mallorca and Tenerife. The price of a mask and snorkel fell by 53 per cent to £3.16, while insect repellent dropped 64 per cent to £1.29.
Andrew Brown, from Post Office Travel Money, said: ‘Sales of the Turkish lira have been rising all year when it became clear that holiday costs in resorts like Marmaris had been falling steadily as sterling surged in value.
‘In the past week, we have seen our currency sales surge by 198 per cent compared with the same time last year.’