Resort town Bodrum eyes 1 mln foreign visitors this year

MUĞLA

Some 1 million foreign tourists are expected to visit the popular resort town of Bodrum in the western province of Muğla, according to Ömer Faruk Dengiz, the head of the local hoteliers’ association (BODER).

Since the start of the year, 500,000 foreign holidaymakers have arrived in the town by plane, and this figure will further rise to 800,000 by the end of 2022, Dengiz said.

“Also, more than 250,000 tourists are expected to arrive with cruise ships,” he added, noting that the number of foreign tourists visiting Bodrum already reached the 2019 levels as of Aug. 10.

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has impacted the tourism activity in the town, but still, the occupancy rate at Bodrum’s hotels is mostly above 90 percent, according to Dengiz. He expects this favorable outlook to continue until the end of September.

He noted that BODER held talks with British travel agencies that agreed to extend the flights to Nov. 15. “Some hotels in Bodrum and Didim also agreed to remain open until that day.”

Demand from both domestic and international tourists grew stronger after the Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday, said Alişir Şahin from BODER.
“Britain is the largest market for Bodrum. Germany is the second largest. The reason for that is Turkish expats living in Germany,” he said.