65 percent of Turkey’s tourism facilities need to be renewed

ANTALYA - Anadolu Agency

Some 65 percent of tourism facilities on Turkey’s coasts need to be renovated to compete with other facilities around the Mediterranean, even though nearly half of Turkey’s hotels are less than 10 years old, according to a recent report by the Touristic Hoteliers Association of the Mediterranean (AKTOB).

“Turkey must concentrate on the renovation of its high-quality touristic facilities to be able to prepare for the future and to compete with other touristic countries, including Spain, Greece and Egypt,” stated the report.

Such renovation work is currently compulsory in Spain, and Greece has made significant investments to renew its touristic facilities over the last two years, as has Egypt, added the report, which is titled “Tourism of the Future, the Future of Tourism.”

Over 44 percent of hotels are under 10 years old in Turkey, making the country one of the Mediterranean countries with the newest hotels.

Around 41 percent of hotels are less than 10 years old in Spain, while this figure is 21 percent in Portugal, 19 percent in Italy, 18 percent in Greece, and 8 percent in Germany.

The youngest hotels are in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, where 65 percent of hotels are less than 10 years old, while Istanbul has the oldest hotels in Turkey with only 29 percent less than 10 years old.

Hotels on Turkey’s coastline should be renovated once a decade, and once every 15-20 years in larger cities, according to the report.

“The tourism sector has the potential to create over $9 billion for new infrastructure investments and acquisitions, among others,” the report added.

AKTOB also predicted that advance reservations will be needed to see several popular international tourist sites by 2030, including the Grand Bazaar, Myanmar, Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower and the Vatican, among others.