Hoteliers pin their hopes on post-Euro 2024 travel

ISTANBUL

Tourist arrivals from European countries are showing signs of picking up after the Euro 2024 ended, according to representatives of the local tourism industry.

For instance, the number of foreign tourists visiting Antalya increased by 12 percent in the first two weeks of July from a year ago to 7.5 million.

The hotel occupancy rates at the hotels in the city have climbed over 90 percent, said Kaan Kavaloğlu, the president of the Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers’ and Investors’ Association (AKTOB).

“We are having a good season now,” he added.

Antalya aims to welcome more than 17 million foreign holidaymakers this year.

Euro 2024 was held in Germany, which is one of the main source tourism markets for Türkiye, Kavaloğlu recalled, adding that during the tournament tourist inflows from Germany slowed.

He also said that the impact from the bankruptcy of the Munich-based tour operator FTI has been limited on the local tourism industry.

“We made arrangements with other tour operators to make sure that those, who already had made reservations, were able to travel to Türkiye,” Kavaloğlu explained.

Some 600,000 Turks residing abroad visited Antalya by June and this number is expected to go up to 1 million in the whole of 2024, according to Kavaloğlu.

Many people in Germany and other European countries postponed their holidays to a later date due to Euro 2024, said Volkan Yorulmaz, the head of the Kemer Promotion Foundation.

“We are expecting an influx of tourists to Türkiye in September, October and November,” he added.

Hakan Saatçioğlu, the president of the Professional Hotel Managers’ Association, admitted that hotels in Bodrum are more expensive than in Antalya, but the main issue is the exorbitant prices at restaurants in the resort town.

“Hotels and restaurants are different. We [hoteliers] do not like being compared with café and restaurant owners. Indeed restaurants in Bodrum are very expensive but it is not the case with hotels,” he said.