Foreign arrivals drop again
THE number of foreign arrivals to Turkey dropped by 25.8 percent to 2.45 million in October, compared to the same month in 2015.
The Tourism Ministry said it was the smallest shrinkage in foreign arrivals in the last seven months, as Turkey’s tourism industry struggles amid political and security concerns.
The number of foreign people visiting Turkey declined to 22.7 million in the first 10 months of 2016, a 31 percent drop compared to the same period of 2015, after a series of bomb attacks, a diplomatic crisis with Russia, and the failed July 15 military coup attempt.
Germany again became the top source for Turkey, with more than 491,000 Germans visiting the country in October, despite an average 33 percent fall in arrivals from Europe. Georgia became the third largest tourist sender for Turkey, with more than 178,000 tourists visiting the country.
In the first 10 months of the year, Germany, Georgia and the United Kingdom were the top sources of foreign arrivals to Turkey, the ministry’s data showed.
New Istanbul airport to open by 2018
The first section of Istanbul’s third airport is planned to open in 2018, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, underlining the economic importance of the government-backed construction projects.
“The construction of our new airport which will be the biggest in the world is going at full speed. We are going to be opening the first stage in the first quarter of 2018,” Erdoğan said in a ceremony of new power-generating ships in Istanbul’s Tuzla on Nov. 13.
Turkey’s Karadeniz Holding has sailed four new 200-megawatt (MW) power-generating ships to Ghana, Indonesia and Myanmar during a ceremony held in Tuzla Sedef Shipyard where also a construction of 14 new power-generating ships have been initiated.
Hotels face closure this winter
Hoteliers in Istanbul may choose to close down their businesses due to a continuing plunge in the numbers of both local and foreign tourists, a leading association warned in a written statement on Dec. 5.
Turkey continued to have the lowest hotel occupancy rates across Europe, mainly due to high declines in occupancy rates in the country’s two touristic cities, Istanbul and Antalya, the Hotels Association of Turkey (TÜROB) said on the latest data from STR Global.
“Istanbul is unfortunately in a very bad situation in terms of tourism. We have seen a huge plunge not only in foreign arrivals, but also in local tourists,” TÜROB President Timur Bayındır said. “We predict that some hotels in Istanbul will have to be closed down in such an environment.”
According to Bayındır, the sector may lose in 2017 unless necessary promotional campaigns commence to improve the country’s image. He noted that some hotels’ occupancy rates have plunged 30 percent, causing a 40 percent loss in staff numbers in the sector.
The average price for a room slumped to 99.3 euros ($106) from 124.1 euros a year earlier.
2017 bookings from UK to Turkey down
Bookings for international departures from the UK over the next six months are ahead by 11.4 percent compared to last year, according to the latest data from ForwardKeys, the traveler intelligence analyst.
The findings show significant increases for Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece, but France and Turkey are seeing fewer bookings because of safety concerns.
ForwardKeys analyses 16 million air reservations daily to support the travel sector. These newest figures also integrate charter booking data from GfK’s Leisure Travel Monitor.
The long haul destinations show an overall growth of 6.3 percent. Canada tops the list in terms of growth at more than 20 percent, followed by India at around 17 percent and the Caribbean at around 8 percent. The US, with a 21.6 percent market share, is growing at under 5 percent.
The short haul market is 14.6 percent ahead, year-on-year. Spain, which has a 47.8 percent market share, is ahead by around 24 percent. In terms of growth, Iceland has put on a massive 50 percent increase, although its market share stands at 2.3 percent.
The real significance is in the decreases – France down just under 15 percent and Turkey down 30 percent.