Some Istanbul hotels may close down in winter amid tourism plunge: Association

ISTANBUL

Hoteliers in Istanbul may choose to close down their businesses due to a continuing plunge in the numbers of both local and foreign tourists, a leading association warned in a written statement on Dec. 5. 

Turkey continued to have the lowest hotel occupancy rates across Europe, mainly due to high declines in occupancy rates in the country’s two touristic cities, Istanbul and Antalya, the Hotels Association of Turkey (TÜROB) said on the latest data from STR Global. 

“Istanbul is unfortunately in a very bad situation in terms of tourism. We have seen a huge plunge not only in foreign arrivals, but also in local tourists,” TÜROB President Timur Bayındır said.

“We predict that some hotels in Istanbul will have to be closed down in such an environment,” he added. 

According to Bayındır, the sector may lose in 2017 unless necessary promotional campaigns commence to improve the country’s image. 

He noted that some hotels’ occupancy rates have plunged to 30 percent, causing a 40 percent loss in staff numbers in the sector. 

Turkey’s hotel occupancy rates declined to 52.2 percent in October with a 14 percent decrease compared to the same month in 2015. Turkey’s hotel occupancy rates were 63.8 percent in October 2014. 

Turkey also experienced the lowest hotel occupancy rates of Europe in the first 10 months of the year with an average of 50.4 percent occupancy rates. This also led to the steepest decline in hotel occupancy rates among all European destinations with a 20.8 percent of year-on-year decline in the mentioned period. 

Revenue from Turkey’s hotel rooms also saw a 41.9 percent decline in the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period of 2015.