Turkey brief

Sources: Turkish Tourism Ministry, World Tourism Organization

TARGETS OF TURKISH TOURISM TOWARDS 2023
Years	Number of Tourist Arrivals (In Millions)	Tourism Revenues (in Billion $ )
2010	33	20
2013	35	28
2016	42	32
2019	50	42
2021	55	50
2023	60	60

Sources: State Planning Organization, İstanbul Chamber of Commerce, and the Tourism Investors’ Associatiom

Yet Turkey has barely even scratched the surface in terms of potential from its travel and leisure industry, the World Travel and Tourism Council says. As the nation is so vast and diverse it has the opportunity to develop alternatives including ecological tourism, incentive and convention tourism, adventure travels, ski holidays, religious and culture tours, and there is almost immeasurable potential for growth and profit in the travel and tourism industry in Turkey.

Turkey is also looking to expand upon its traditional summer tourism appeal with the development of new out-of-season incentives to visitors, including thermal and health tourism and archaeological tours. Turkey has one of the world’s richest cultural heritages, and sites of historic interest are becoming of increasing value as tourist destinations in their own right. Opening up new tourism sites in the country’s interior will have a significant effect on the economic development of these areas.

Turkey has been the world's third fastest growth travel destination, behind Russia and China, throughout the past two decades, according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO).

In 2009, it ranked seventh in the world in the number of tourist arrivals and ninth in terms of tourism receipts. France ranked number one with 74.2 million visitors, followed by the U.S. with 54.9 million and Spain with 52.2 million visitors. The U.S. followed by Spain were the leaders in tourism tourism receipts in 2009 with $94.2 billion and $53.2 billion respectively.

The high value of the euro against the U.S. dollar, low-cost, all-inclusive travel packages, and direct charter flights from major European cities to the country’s main resorts contributed to Turkey’s success in tourism, particularly in attracting travelers from the European Union and the former Soviet Union.

In 2010, Germany led with the most visitors to Turkey with 4,385,263 tourists, followed by the Russia with 3,107,043. Some 642,768 American tourists visited the country in 2010.

Turkey's tourism earnings also grew from a modest $280 million in 1979 to a record $21.2 billion in 2009, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Turkish tourism receipts were down slightly in 2010 with earnings at $20.806 billion.

To catch up with the tourism boom, the government began a crash hotel, motel, and holiday village building program that aims to increase hotel bed capacity to about 1.2 million, a whopping 113% increase from its 1998 capacity.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals in Turkey (2003-2009)
Year	Tourists (million)	Revenues (billion dollars)
2004	17.6	15.9
2005	21.1	18.2
2006	19.8	16.9
2007	23.3	18.5
2008	26.3	21.9
2009	27.0	21.2
2010	28.6	20.8

Visitors to Turkey from Top 15 Countries (2010)

Country	Number of Tourists
Germany	4,385,263
Russia	3,107,043
Britain	2,673,605
Iran	1,885,097
Bulgaria	1,433,970
Georgia	1,112,193
Holland	1,073,064
France	928,376
Syria	899,494
Italy Greece	671,060 670,297
U.S. 642,768 Ukraine 568,227 Belgium 543,003 Austria 500,321

Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Rank	Country	UNWTO Regional Market	International Tourism Receipts (2010)^[2]	Change/2009 in local currencies
1	United States	North America	$103.5 billion	+9.9%
2	Spain	Europe	$52.5 billion	+3.3%
3	France	Europe	$46.3 billion	-1.3%
4	China	Asia	$45.8 billion	+15.5%
5	Italy	Europe	$38.8 billion	+1.4%
6	Germany	Europe	$34.7 billion	+5.3%
7	United Kingdom	Europe	$30.4 billion	+1.7%
8	Australia	Oceania	$30.1 billion	+0.8%
9	Hong Kong (China)	Europe	$23.0 billion	+39.8%
10	Turkey	Europe	$20.8 billion	-2.1%

Top 10 most visited cities by estimated number of international visitors by selected year
City	Country	International visitors (millions)	Year/Notes
Paris	France	15.1	2010
London	United Kingdom	14.6	2010
New York City	United States	9.7	2010
Antalya	Turkey	9.2	2010
Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	8.9	2010^[
Singapore	Singapore	8.6	2010
Hong Kong	China	8.4	2010
Bangkok	Thailand	7.2	2010
İstanbul	Turkey	6.9	2010
Dubai	United Arab Emirates	6.8	2009

Source: World Tourism Organization, Ministries of Tourism

İstanbul and Antalya are among the world’s 10 most visited cities, and are in the same league as London, Paris, New York City, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok and Dubai when it comes to attracting foreign travelers.

Hotels

At the end of 2009, Turkey had 3,379 hotels and holiday villages with a total bed capacity of 840,241, according to the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies. This is an enormous expansion since 1966, when the country had only 456 hotels with a bed capacity of just under 40,000. In 1979, the country had fewer than 90,000 beds – about the same as the Greek island of Rhodes.

Investors are pouring $3 billion into the construction of 124 new hotels, including 22 five-star and 36 four-star facilities, across the country, the Tourism Investors’ Association said. Some 50 hotels, including 15 five-star complexes are also being revamped. On the Asian side of İstanbul alone, some 21 hotel projects are in various stages of planning and construction, and several have opened, including the DoubleTree by Hilton in Moda, the Ağaoğlu My City in Ümraniye, the Green Park Pendik, the Titanic Business Hotel in Kartal , the Divan İstanbul Asia Pendik and the ByOtell in Kozyatağı.

In Beşiktaş, on the European side of the city, Tanrıverdi Holding is investing $250 million to transform an old tobacco warehouse into the seven-star Shangri-La İstanbul Hotel. The Singapore-based Raffles Hotels and Resorts will operate a 5-star premium hotel that is being constructed at the Zorlu Center in Zincirlikuyu.

The April 2006 report of the Association of Real Estate Investment Companies (GYODER) also stated that İstanbul needed an additional 91,325 beds by 2015. Assuming that this requirement is met through five and three to four star hotels, some 60 five-star and 276 three-star hotels are needed just in İstanbul. İstanbul topped the list of hotel occupancy rate list in 2005, a study by Deloitte Moscow stated.

In income per room, İstanbul ranked second after Moscow. Further, more new bed capacity is needed in Central Anatolia and Black Sea, while Antalya region desperately needs investments to lengthen the tourism season, such as golf, health, shopping and entertainment facilities. The government extends generous incentives for tourism investments, including allocation of land.

An emerging trend in the past few years is the mushrooming of boutique hotels. Their number has reached 500, of which 150 are in İstanbul. The chairman of the Turkish Hotel Owners Association said that tourists coming for İstanbul and other historical places would increase to a great extent if the number of boutique hotels increases.

Some 255 foreign hotel operators have direct investments in Turkey, including America’s Hilton, the Ritz Carlton Hotels and Resorts and the Sheraton, and Canada’s Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Germany’s Kempinski and Iberote, the Marriottl and France’s Novotel Hotels and Club Mediterranean.

The World’s Most Expensive Hotel

Luxury hotels are also being developed on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

In May 2009, Azeri billionaire Telman Ismailov launched the five-star Mardan Palace Hotel – in Antalya with a $1.4 billion investment and fanfare. The facility, touted as the “world’s most expensive hotel,” resembles İstanbul’s Topkapı Palace, the residence of the Ottoman sultans, and has a lobby the size of a footlball pitch, lit by a gigantic chandelier. It also has a two acre spa, an 18-hole golf course and an immense swinmming pool that one can cross in a gondola. The hotel has beaches with white sand flown in from Egypt. A one night stay in the hotel’s suites costs around $18,000. Each room has remote control toilets and many other unsual attractions. Ismailov is chairman of AST, Russia’s biggest property developer.