Hotels filled to capacity in only June
Foreign visitor attraction to Turkey’s tourism center of Antalya continues to grow, leading to full hotel occupancy even at the beginning of the summer season, Mediterranean Tourism Hotels Union (AKTOB) Chairman Sururi Çorabatır has said.
Tourism growth has seen a remarkable acceleration in the last five months, and this growth continued in June, Çorabatır said, adding: “Antalya hotel occupancy rates are at the highest levels. Even finding a single room is difficult. We expect high occupancy to continue until mid-October.” The chairman underlined that seasonal occupancy rate peaks had already been reached: “Antalya has entered high-occupancy season. Not only five-star hotels, but other accommodation facilities are also expected to reach 100 percent occupancy soon.”
The region rightly deserves the visitors it hosts from around the globe, Çorabatır said, and the number of tourists from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in particular has increased significantly. The number of tourists from European countries has grown between 6-8 percent and the number of tourists from the Commonwealth of Independent States has increased between 25-30 percent so far this year.
‘We need to improve year-round tourism’
Despite this huge demand on the eve of the summer season, average hotel occupancy rates in the region during the rest of the year are far below acceptable levels, Çorabatır asserted, saying that hotels should operate at full capacity all year round. “Hotels are full between June and October; however, hoteliers face serious problems between October and May in terms of the number of customers,” he said. To sustain the quality of service beyond mere survival, the hotels must find permanent ways to attract visitors to accomplish 12-month high occupancy rates, he noted, adding: “We must attach more importance to alternative types of tourism, such as conference and sports tourism.”
Antalya has the capacity to serve conference and sports tourism, the chairman said, with its conference halls that can seat a total 118,000 and facilities for the 1,500 sports teams it hosts each winter. Hotels can operate at full capacity during the winter as well as the summer, he said.
Burhan Coşkun, manager of the Culture and Tourism Bureau in the Aegean region’s town of Fethiye, also pointed to the fact that hotels rating three, four and five stars and first-class holiday campsites were operating at full occupancy levels. On the other hand, Coşkun acknowledged, small hostels are not enjoying the same prosperity since all-inclusive pricing mechanisms employed by larger accommodation facilities were usually deemed more economical by visitors. “The highest occupancy levels are experienced from July on. [Occupancy] reaches up to 95 percent in Fethiye. We are satisfied with the keen interest of both local and foreign visitors, but people prefer staying at higher-quality hotels applying the all-inclusive price system,” noted Coşkun in a telephone interview with Today’s Zaman. Indicating that winter is not a prosperous season for Fethiye, Coşkun said Fethiye lacked the facilities necessary for wintertime tourism. Most visitors to Fethiye come from England, Holland, Germany and Russia, in descending order, Coşkun said.
source: Today’s Zaman
Tags: Tourism & travel Turkey