Arab governments want to control where their citizens go on holiday

A COUNTRY THAT draws 39m foreign tourists each year is on the brink of anarchy, if you believe the Saudi media. “Turkey is not safe for travel,” blared a recent headline in a Saudi newspaper. The kingdom’s embassy in Ankara has warned of rising petty crime aimed at Saudi citizens. Another story claimed that 2,187 people were killed in gun violence in Turkey in 2017. (There are no such warnings about America, where gun deaths are far more common.)

It is true that one Saudi visitor in Turkey last year was murdered and dismembered. However, his killers were not locals but a 15-member Saudi hit squad and the murder took place inside a Saudi consulate. The victim was a journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, who had upset the Saudi regime. His death made tense relations between the two countries much worse. Hence the campaign by Saudi officials to discourage their citizens from travelling to Turkey. It seems to be working: Saudi tourist arrivals were down by 31% in the first five months of this year compared with last.