Turkish holiday resorts and hotels are expecting a boom in foreign visitors in the new year period with bookings already soaring, particularly in popular destinations like the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya.
“The demand from Russia for the new year is generally good. We can say that the demand from the European market is better compared to previous years,” Firuz Bağlıkaya, the head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB), said.
He told Anadolu Agency (AA) that especially in Antalya, they expect the occupancy rate at hotels to reach 90%.
Türkiye has already been the hottest holiday spot for Russians in 2022. Some 5.3 million Russians visited Türkiye this year, according to Russia’s Association of Tour Operators (ATOR).
Russian tourists have been one of the main drivers of the rebound in Türkiye’s tourism this year, in addition to a major leap in demand from Europe, spearheaded by Germany and the United Kingdom.
Bağlıkaya further stated that January through November 2022 saw the number of foreign visitors to Türkiye reach 42.1 million, while tourism income increased to over $35 billion (TL 655.12 billion) in nine months with the revised figures of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Stating that the number of visitors increased by 84% compared to 2021, he said the tourism income was still 1.7% below the pre-pandemic period of 2019.
Pointing out that the demand for 2023 is also high, according to contact with tour operators and travel agencies abroad, Bağlıkaya said: “We also achieved positive results from the contacts we made at the WTM Fair, one of the most important tourism fairs in the world, held in London at the beginning of November.”
Although reservation demands for 2023 are positive, three main factors that will determine Türkiye's tourism performance should not be ignored, he went on to say, listing these as the possibility of a global economic recession, high inflation in the world and the effect of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“We will be following all these developments closely throughout the next year,” he said.
Pointing out that travel agencies have been offering early reservation campaigns to citizens since November, the TÜRSAB head stated that while the interest of citizens in the early reservation period for domestic holidays followed a similar course as last year, they had observed an increase in demand since mid-December.
He also emphasized that, “A significant portion of holiday lovers tend to make decisions by seeing the developments in income and prices in the new year.”
“Promotions and campaigns are extremely important for reviving the domestic market in 2023,” he said.
While the most preferred holiday period within the scope of early bookings has been the months of June and July, the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, including the coastal towns of Side, Belek, Kemer, Alanya, Kuşadası, Bodrum and Marmaris, are the destinations where the domestic interest is concentrated, he added.
Bağlıkaya noted that when looking at the tours organized abroad from Türkiye, the interest in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is high and Italy and the Balkan countries are also popular with warmer regions such as Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh and the Red Sea.
