School break gives boost to domestic tourism

ANTALYA

Scores of people, especially students, are flocking to Turkey’s major holiday destinations, such as Antalya, Cappadocia and Lake Abant, with the start of a short school break, giving a boost to local tourism activity.

Schools will remain closed from Nov. 15 to Nov. 19, but holidaymakers merged the weekends to prolong their stay at tourism destinations.

More than 12 million students and over 1 million teachers will return to resume face-to-face education the coming Monday.

Reservations for hotels in Antalya increased 20 percent, while occupancy rates at those venues in the province climbed to 70 percent.

“The school break revived domestic tourism,” said Sururi Çorabatır from the Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TÜRFED).

Expressing that the nine-day holiday postponed the closure of hotels to December in some regions, Çorabatır said that the mobility of families with children toward both coastal cities and nearby provinces was observed as this is the last holiday opportunity in 2021.

Çorabatır also noted that apart from coastal cities, regions such as Cappadocia, Abant, Sandıklı, Sapanca and Yedigöller, which stand out with their historical, natural, thermal and cultural values, were also attracting attention.

Famous for its geological oddity of honeycombed hills, Cappadocia has attracted 2 million tourists in the first 10 months of 2021.