Prolonged tourism season boosts employment in Antalya

ANTALYA

A prolonged tourism season this year has given a boost to employment in the industry in the southern province of Antalya, which has been recovering fast from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first 10 months of 2022, 12.7 million foreign tourists arrived in the city on the Mediterranean coast by air, which marked a strong 48 percent increase from the same period of 2021. In September alone, the popular holiday destination welcomed 1.7 million tourists.

As a result of the rebound in tourism activity, the number of people employed in the local tourism industry in July, which is the peak month for tourist visits, rose from 258,338 last year to more than 291,372 this year.

This figure, provided by the local Social Security Institution (SGK) includes the people employed by the travel agencies, tour operators and food services companies in Antalya and marked an all-time-high July figure.

In July 2017, the local tourism industry employed 209,000 people and in the same month in 2019, when Türkiye welcomed a record number of foreign visitors, the corresponding figure was 271,000. But as the pandemic started to take its toll on the global travel and tourism industries, companies in Antalya had to reduce their staff to 154,000 in 2020.

In August, the local tourism industry increased its employment to 293,000 people as tourist arrivals remained strong.

“For the first time, the number of employed in [Antalya’s] tourism sector in August exceed that of July. In the past, usually employment in the local industry would decline in August compared with July,” said Beyazıt Ablay, the provincial head of the SGK.

As tourism season is expected to prolong, employment in the sector is likely to continue to increase in October and November, Ablay said.

Türkiye, and particularly Antalya, is a favorite holiday destination among Russians. Data from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), 9 million Russians traveled abroad between July and September.

During this period, 2.1 million Russians visited Türkiye, making it the second largest destination for Russians after Abkhazia.

Businesses in Antalya also create jobs for foreigners.

Data from the SGK also showed that there was a total of 20,872 foreign employees working in different industries from 130 countries in the province as of August. Some 4,200 Kyrgyz were working in the province, topping the list of foreign workers, followed by 3,300 Russians and 2,900 Kazakhs.

Businesses in Antalya also employed 1,900 Ukrainians, 958 Germans, 681 Azeris and 946 Syrians. According to the SGK records, there were employees also from Trinidad and Tobago, Zimbabwe, Kongo, Kenya and Morocco.