Turkey’s tourism industry fears a disastrous summer season. In July, the occupancy rate of Antalya hotels averaged only 50-80%, said Zafer Alkai, CEO of Cornelia Diamond Golf Resort & SPA Hotel.
According to him, the loading of hotels in the second half of summer is a very important factor for the tourism industry. It is at this time that the largest number of tourists per year falls, i.e. July and August form the base of the entire tourist flow, and, accordingly, the financial success of the high season. However, last month showed that the demand for Turkish resorts is rapidly falling. Despite the fact that the Minister of Tourism of the republic, Mehmet Ersoy, blames everything on Euro 2024, which has delayed a significant part of the European public, the problem may be much deeper.
Zafer Alkai sees a way out of this situation in careful work to improve the level of service at resorts in general and in hotels in particular. This will help attract wealthy tourists to Turkey who are willing to pay more and do not skimp on vacation. At the same time, there is another option, however, the expert considers it a dead end – discounts. In his opinion, they will, of course, attract a certain number of guests, but in the future they will have a disastrous effect on the tourism industry.
Russian tour operators are unlikely to agree with the hotelier. They have already noted a negative trend: prices for holidays in Turkey are rising for the second year in a row, and significantly. However, the level of service in many hotels remains the same, and even falls in some places.
Meanwhile, most recently, the president of the Association of Hoteliers and Tour Operators of the Mediterranean (AKTOB) Kaan Kavaloglu confidently reported a 90% occupancy rate in Antalya hotels. However, a month before that, the indicator was at the level of 70%. Perhaps the local tourism industry has different ways of calculating occupancy, but the problems in the industry this season are obvious.
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