The tourist’s hope of going out in summer

The tourism sector, which opened in severe conditions after the pandemic in 2020, had a pause with the Russia-Ukraine war last year, and could not get off to the start it expected with the earthquake and the electoral process this year, expect June to the season to open. Noting that the Russian market has not yet mobilized sufficiently due to economic problems and lack of flights, and that the election period also affected bookings in the Scandinavian and Central European markets, industry representatives dropped their hopes for a quick return to June, which will bring income of 56 billion dollars and 60 million tourists in the summer period.

Noting that the absence of Russian tourists is felt both in the south and throughout Turkey, Vice President of the Turkish Federation of Hoteliers Bülent Bülbüloğlu stated that the number of arrivals decreased due to the low number of flights.

“The Russian market is not where it should be right now, for reasons such as the depreciation of the ruble against the dollar and the increase in hotel prices in foreign currency. Bülbüloğlu said: “This situation creates a huge deficit both for the region and for Turkish tourism.” Bülbüloğlu stated that some hotels were not yet able to open their doors and that the occupancy of those that did open was not at the expected level.

WEAK STARTS THE SEASON

Bülbüloğlu noted that they expect a quick return, especially since the electoral process was left behind in the summer period, stating that the goals for 2023 can be achieved with rapid arrivals of tourists. Bülbüloğlu said that the industry was able to make quick returns during the pandemic and its aftermath: “We will race to achieve the goal because we have a lot of employees. There are serious investments. Our start is a bit loose. “We’re not in a bad situation, we’re not in a good situation,” he said.

“We are caught between high inflation and low exchange rate”

Noting that there is almost no activity in the domestic market, Bülent Bülbüloğlu said that people are waiting for the election result for Christmas shopping. Noting that the sector has not fully opened for the season yet, Bülbüloğlu said, “Our occupancy needs to reach a certain level for us to reach the profit point. Currently, the exchange rate pressure on currencies unfortunately does not cover the cost increases that the inflation that we are experiencing brings with it. We are caught between high inflation and a low exchange rate. The biggest expense in the accommodation sector is staff, energy and food prices have increased significantly. We cannot reflect these to the foreign market, we made our contracts in foreign currency a year ago. There is no movement in the internal market, ”he said.