Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at November 24th, 2008

The number of foreign visitors to Turkey rose 14.38 percent year-on-year in October to 2.462 million, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said on Monday.

Tourism is an important source of foreign currency for Turkey, which has a large current account deficit. In September the number of foreign visitors had grown 6.49 percent from a year earlier.

The number of foreign tourists in the first ten months of the year rose 13.40 percent from a year earlier to 23.977 million.

Germany sent the highest number of tourists to Turkey in October, with a total of 499,874 making up 20.30 percent of all arrivals, followed by Britain which accounted for 9.41 percent of visitors. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 11th, 2008

Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay expects that the annual number of tourists visiting Turkey will be more than 25 million this year.

“Despite all the setbacks that the Turkish tourism sector saw in 2008, the number of foreign visitors will pass a critical threshold, reaching over 25 million by the end of the year,” Günay stated at a press conference in London, where he participated in the World Tourism Fair. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 10th, 2008

While the global financial crisis and the rise of the value of the dollar are taking their toll on the non-financial economy, tourism — one of the cornerstones of the Turkish economy — had a productive season in 2008, attracting 21.5 million tourists in the first nine months of the year — a 13.3 percent increase over the same period of the previous year — according to data from the Security Directorate.

The directorate reported that the largest number of visitors to Turkey came from Germany, with 16 percent of the total between January and September. The Russian Federation and the United Kingdom followed Germany’s lead. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 5th, 2008

There may be a boom in Turkey’s 2009 summer tourism season, according to Adnan Güneş, contracts manager for Kuoni, the world-renowned Swedish tour operator.

While the economic crisis and the rise of the dollar are adversely affecting the real economy, this could be an opportunity for the tourism industry. Due to the greenback’s rise, Turkey is now cheaper for European tourists, said Güneş. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish tourists flocked to Antalya, Alanya, Kars, Marmaris and Çesme this past season, totaling 58,000 tourists, he said.

“The crisis is affecting every country. No one is traveling anymore. Tourism has all but stopped in the Canary Islands, Miami and ski resorts for the winter season.

If Turkey makes a smart move right now, and really sorts its tourism policy out, this crisis could work in its favor, said Güneş. (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…)