Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at November 5th, 2008

Sungate Port Royal, a luxurious hotel situated in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, is one of the world’s top 100 hotels, according to a rating by Russia’s most visited tourism Web site.

The “Top 100 Best Hotels of the World” ranking, announced annually by “Top Hotels”, or www.tophotels.ru, is based on price, quality balances and the Web site hits of the world’s 35,000 hotels as well as evaluations by hotel guests and agency employees. The hotels at the list are given a special certificate.

The ranking has an important role particularly for Russian tourists’ vacation preferences. The fact that 9 million tourists on average leave Russia for vacation each year, and that 3 million of them prefer Turkey conveys better the importance of the ranking. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 3rd, 2008

Turkey’s trade deficit shrank unexpectedly in September as a weaker Turkish lira, or YTL, helped boost exports to neighboring countries and reduce demand for imported goods.

The gap narrowed to $5 billion from $5.4 billion a year earlier, Turkish Statistical Institute, or TÜİK, in Ankara said on its Web site late Friday. The deficit, which narrowed for the first time since April 2007, was forecast at $5.8 billion, according to the median estimate of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

“Our exports are growing and at the same time capital goods and consumption imports are losing momentum,” said Ozan Gazitürk, an economist at Şekerbank in Istanbul. “Turkish companies have less tendency to invest and buy imports.” (more…)

Posted by meb at October 29th, 2008

Despite the ongoing global financial crisis, the Hilton Family hotel chain is planning to add an additional 40 hotels to its Turkish portfolio, which currently has only seven hotels in Turkey.

Citing a lack of international hotels providing world-class service in the Turkish hotel sector, senior Hilton executives unveiled the group’s plans yesterday morning during a breakfast at the Hilton İstanbul. Hilton executives, including Mike Collini, vice president of development for Northern Europe, Patrick Fitzgibbon, senior vice president of development for Europe and Africa, and Didier Martin, vice president for Eastern Europe and Turkey, drove home the message that Turkey has the brightest future for hotel growth in Europe at this time. (more…)

Posted by meb at October 17th, 2008

SunExpress, a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, expects to improve its market position and grow in the aviation sector.

The general manager of SunExpress, Paul Schwaiger, declared that the place they occupy in the market gives them the strength to reach even higher in the future. He underlined that they have responded to strong market demand and continued to grow at their three home bases, especially at İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport. “In 2008, we added four new Boeing 737-800 models to our fleet, and we operated 17 aircraft,” he added. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 6th, 2008

Antalya has become the most popular vacation destination for Russian tourists, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Russia sends more tourists to Turkey than anywhere else, according to data compiled by Anatolia. Escaping their country’s cold climate for Turkey’s sun, sand and sea, Russians prefer to take their vacations in Antalya.

In terms of numbers of tourists visiting Antalya, Russians ranked first with 1.6 million tourists in the first eight months of this year. German tourists got the second spot with 1.5 million visitors and Ukrainians followed Germans with 335,595 tourists. A total of 6.5 million tourists, including both foreign and domestic tourists, visited Antalya in the first eight months of 2008. In the same period Antalya was also the most popular vacation spot for Iranian and Spanish tourists. The number of Iranian tourists in Antalya increased by 117 percent compared to last year, and the number of Spanish tourists increased by 267 percent. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 4th, 2008

The ambassadress of Norway to Turkey forecast on Thursday that the number of Norwegian tourists visiting Turkey would be over 200,000 by the end of 2008.

Cecilie Landsverk, the Norwegian Ambassadress in Ankara, said that her country predicted that the number of Norwegian citizens visiting Turkey in 2008 would exceed 200,000.

Turkey had become a very popular tourist destination for the Norwegians, Landsverk said.

Landsverk said that Norway’s population was around 4.7 million and that the number of Norwegians visiting Turkey was fairly high when the population was taken into consideration. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 2nd, 2008

A clear majority of visitors coming to Turkey hail from the middle-income bracket, figures provided by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) show.

According to tourism statistics for the second quarter of 2008, 66.9 percent of all visitors belonged to the middle-income bracket in their respective countries, whereas only 18.8 percent of them enjoyed a higher-than-average standard of living. Only 2.2 percent of the visitors could be considered wealthy.

According to the TurkStat figures, 6.6 million visitors crossed Turkey’s borders in the second quarter. Of these, 5.9 million were foreign nationals and some 724,000 were Turkish citizens living abroad. A total of 53.4 percent of all visitors were male and 52.5 percent had a university diploma or higher degree. (more…)

Posted by meb at August 28th, 2008

Volkan Şimşek, president of the Turkish Professional Hotel Managers’ Assembly, has said the number of tourists visiting Turkey increased 23 percent this year, but that travelers stayed for less time on average compared to last year.

According to the Anatolia news agency, this year tourists stayed in Turkey for only nine days on average, down from 11 in 2007. Şimşek underlined that hotels in Antalya have had a hard time maintaining full occupancy. “By the end of this year the number of the tourists visiting Turkey will be 9 million, which means a 1.4 million increase compared to last year. However, the average overnight stay rate, which was 83 million, will decrease to 81 million,” Şimşek noted. Signifying that the hotels are not as crowded as they were last year, Şimşek asserted that even in the busiest period, generally in August, there are not enough tourists showing up at hotels. (more…)