Turkey seeks to become lead country in tourism industry

By Azernews

By Ali Mustafayev

Turkey, a major tourism destination and one of the world's top ten in terms of revenue generated, seeks to be in Top 5.

The authorities say that the country realizes its potential and abilities in tourism industry and consequently intends to be one of the lead countries of this industry in the world. Although there are good conditions to carry out the plan, a huge work remains to be done.

“To change the tourism type from seasonal tourism to the year-round tourism is one of the most important reforms,” Trend reported citing the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. “Turkey also has potential to develop the mountain ski tourism for those who like active winter tourism.”

To attract a large number of tourists to Turkey a special attention should be paid to promotion of the tourism sector, both domestically and abroad, according to the ministry.

As the reforms and measures require huge funds, the ministry does not exclude redirection of the revenues generated from the tourism sector to its further development.

The country’s income from the tourism sector hit $ 5.413 billion in the second quarter of 2017, showing an increase of 8.7 percent compared to the same period in 2016, according to the Turkish Institute of Statistics.

The number of foreigners who visited Turkey in June 2017 increased by 43.01 percent compared to the same month in 2016. In June 2017, 3.486 million foreigners visited Turkey, 41,991 of who visited other countries by transit through Turkey.

The association of hoteliers of Turkey earlier stated that the average occupancy of the hotels in June, 2017 was 53.3%, which is 0.3% more than the previous year. The average price of the hotel rooms is 101.2 euro, which is 19.2% more than in 2016.

Income per one hotel suite increased from 46.8 euro in June, 2016 to 56 euro in June, 2017.

2016 was a bad year for the tourism sector of Turkey as the country saw worsening of relations with Russia, a number of terror attacks and military coup attempt. The number of foreigners visiting Turkey dropped to 25.3 million in 2016. That is a 30 percent drop compared to 2015.

Turkey’s tourism revenue dropped to $22.1 billion in 2016, a 29.7 percent decrease compared to 2015, as the number of foreign arrivals to the country witnessed a dramatic plunge, the official data showed.

A sharp decline in Russian tourists to Turkey’s Mediterranean coasts has played a big role in the law figures.

Some 60 percent of the hotels in the Antalya-Kemer region did not open their doors in 2016, with many others closing the season earlier than the previous years, according to the Daily News. In 2016, the number of arrivals from Russia into Turkey regressed to 866,256 overall, a 76.2 percent drop from the previous year.

In early 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks abroad to spend their vacations in their homeland. 

Most of the 5 million Turks living abroad reside in European countries such as France, Belgium, and Britain along with Germany.