Turkey to close year with 41 million tourists: Sector representative

ANTALYA - Anadolu Agency

DHA photo

Turkey will reach last year’s tourist numbers of 41 million despite all the negativities in neighboring countries, said the head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB). 

“Despite the negativities in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and others, Turkey will reach 2014’s figures in tourism,” said TÜRSAB head Başaran Ulusoy. 

With the coming nine-day Eid al-Adha holiday, many local people will have the chance to have a vacation, increasing income in the sector, he added. 

Local tourists are opting for Greece and Greek islands, the Mediterranean resort of Antalya and the Central Anatolian spot of Cappadocia this year, Ulusoy added.  

He noted that the sector had been growing continuously for the last five years. 

“Around 40,000 new beds are added in the sector every year. This requires around 1 million incoming tourists,” Ulusoy said. “Turkey has succeeded in not seeing dramatic losses in tourist numbers despite several problems in neighboring countries and will close the year with around 41 million in tourist numbers. There has, however, been a decline in hotel occupancy rates of around 5-10 percent this year, but this is mainly caused by additional new beds that have recently become available. We should therefore shelve our new investments on beds for a while to make the existing capacity full.”