Barcelo to invest 100 million euros in Turkey for expansion

ISTANBUL

Spain’s Barcelo Hotel Group plans to invest a total of 100 million euros in Turkey over the next five years to have a total of 20 hotels.

The group officially inaugurated its five-star Barcelo Hotel Istanbul on May 3 in Istanbul’s Taksim, which is very popular among local and foreign tourists. Barcelo currently operates three hotels in Turkey.

“We have invested 7 million euros in the hotel. In five months, we have hosted guests from 116 countries and the hotel’s occupancy rate currently stands at 80 percent,” said Hasan Ekmen, general manager of Barcelo Hotel Group Turkey.

He noted that Barcelo has been operating in Turkey for 20 years and invested 60 million euros in the county to date.

“We believe in Turkey. That is why we plan to undertake investments worth 100 million euros over the next five years,” Ekmen said.

Barcelo Group will particularly focus on Istanbul, Antalya on the Mediterranean coast, İzmir on the Aegean coast, the capital Ankara and Cappadocia, according to the company executive.

Barcelo is the world’s 29th largest hotel chain, operating 251 hotels in 25 countries.

Turkey welcomed 5.44 million foreign visitors in the January-March period, according to the latest data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

In the first quarter of 2019, the number of foreign visitors rose by 6.12 percent on a yearly basis.

Istanbul was the top arriving destination with nearly 3.1 million tourists, accounting for 56.4 percent of all foreign visitors.