Normally the cafes and shopping plazas would be crowded. But not this year.

Salesmen stand in front of shops waiting for customers, but they don’t come in droves like they used to. This isn’t a zombie apocalypse, it’s the result of Turkey’s declining tourism industry—an industry which used to collect between $18-20 billion a year.

The industry has seen a 35 percent loss of tourists from May 2015 to May 2016. And it is hard to point to just one cause of industry decline

Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian military plane in November resulted in few tourists from Russia. Other political factors include ISIS attacks in the region and renewed conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurds.

And it is not hard to see the effects of lagging tourism. In Istanbul, tour groups for the historic palaces and Hagia Sophia‚an ancient church left from the Greeks, are much smaller.

In my small coastal town, the British and other Americans who usually travel to Turkey in the summer are nowhere to be seen. I was told that I could be a receptionist at a hotel using my English, only to be told later that my language skills wouldn’t be of any use this season.

Then I tried to find another summer job, but my luck wasn’t much better. I got a job at a small pizza restaurant, but my boss told me after a few days that he did not need an assistant anymore because there was not enough business.

Where I live, I only see locals and a few Germans. Turkey has been host to tourists from throughout the world for a long time. Even during the Ottoman Empire, there was international mingling between Turkish men and traders from Asia and North Africa.

We are seeing a crisis of tourism like we have never seen before. Hopefully, Turkey and Russia will sort out whatever they have between each other, and unrest between Turks and Kurds will end. Hotels and business owners need it if they are to keep on running.