Hasn't Turkish Airlines already moved in to take up the slack? Well, yes, of course it has, but the fact of the matter is that in the not too dim and distant past, when only THY flew to Kayseri, prices were set at levels only the wealthy could afford. It was the coming of competition that brought them down to more reasonable levels. No doubt we can expect to see prices rise again now that it has so conveniently withdrawn. Although, perhaps in the short term we will be saved from price hikes by the harsh reality that lies behind Onur Air's decision. Here in Göreme we like to think that the entire world revolves around tourism, when of course in reality the recent boom all over the country was mainly because other sections of the economy were doing so well. What the withdrawal of Onur Air flights appears to confirm is that Kayseri really has been reduced to an Anatolian pussycat instead of the roaring tiger of recent years, which can't be good news for any of us.
The one shred of comfort I draw from all this is that it may hold out hope of a revival for Central Anatolia's roadside service stations which have certainly been feeling the chill recently. When I first started to visit Cappadocia regularly, one of my favorite service stations was the Kapadokya Tesisleri, where the night buses from İstanbul would stop on the never-ending journey across the plains. In the late 1990s it was a wonderful place that even managed a small petting zoo. Everything was clean and well-maintained, and there was a coherence to the design that made it very attractive.
On recent visits, however, it has presented a very different picture. The petting zoo has long been history, but then the tea-drinking area was enclosed inside a sort of plastic tent that, at nighttime, turned into a seriously grim area full of men who looked as if their lives depended on their nicotine fix. Then one whole side of the complex metamorphosed into a haphazard collection of shops, none of them selling anything anyone could conceivably wish to buy.
It was all rather depressing, but then it began to occur to me that something rather like what had happened to Greyhound buses in the US might be starting to happen in Turkey, too. As competition brought air fares down, almost anyone with money started to opt out of taking the bus. After all, who would choose 12 hours of physical discomfort on an overnight bus from İstanbul when the journey could be reduced to a more reasonable five hours door to door by flying? On routes such as the grueling Cappadocian ones I suspect that all those with ready cash routinely take the plane now, leaving only those with the least disposable income rocking up at the service stations, in which case it's hardly surprising that some of them have started to look so sad.
Maybe if a few more of us are forced back onto the buses by rising air fares their future might start to look a little rosier again.
Pat Yale lives in a restored cave-house in Göreme in Cappadocia
