Türkiye’s hotel sector continues to grow: Report

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s hotel industry continues to grow with new players joining the market, the Hotel Association of Türkiye (TÜROB) has said in a recent report.

The number of chain and group hotels in the country increased from 57 in 2019 to 67 last year, including 46 local and 21 international chains, showed the report.

The 722 accommodation facilities operated by those chains and groups had a total of 157,495 rooms. Of those facilities 321 were franchises and 257 were operated by owners.

Some 221 of those hotels were in Istanbul, followed by Antalya, another major tourist destination on the Mediterranean coast, at 155 and the province of Muğla in the Aegean region at 73, according to TÜROB’s “Chain and Group Hotels 2023 Research.”

Wyndham Hotels captured the top spot on the list with 105 hotels operating across Türkiye with 15,368 rooms. Hilton Worldwide ranked second at 77 with 13,873 rooms.

Accor Group came in third at 62 hotels with 13,233 rooms, followed by Marriott at 44 hotels with 7,674 rooms. Radisson Group had 33 facilities with 4,876 rooms as of last year.

The Turkish accommodation sector has always been appealing to local and international investors, said Müberra Eresin, the president of TÜROB, commenting on the result of the study.

“Despite all challenges, the sector continues to lure investors. In addition to the increase in investments, the fact that domestic and foreign chains increased the number of their hotels is an indication of this,” she added, singling out Istanbul as one of main locations in the world for hotel investments.

More than 17 million foreign tourists visited Istanbul last year, accounting for 35 percent of all foreign tourist arrivals in Türkiye. Antalya welcomed nearly 15 million international holidaymakers in 2023.

The number of foreign tourists visiting the country increased by 10.4 percent last year from 2022 to 49.2 million.

Including Turkish citizens residing abroad, the number of total visitors reached 56.7 million last year, marking a 10.3 percent increase compared to 2022.

As tourist inflows into the country picked up, tourism revenues, which are one of the main sources of hard currency, also rose last year.

According to the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), tourism revenues amounted to $54.3 billion in 2023, increasing by 16.9 percent from the previous year.

Türkiye aims to welcome 60 million visitors and generate $60 billion in tourism revenues this year, said Tourism and Culture Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said last week.