Tourism on Turkey

    Preface 

 

This report is the result of a study into the tourism sector in Turkey. In two other reports the tourism sectors in Cyprus and Malta are described.

    These reports together with reports on the textiles, apparel and leather sector and the financial services sector encompass the final results of the study in specific sectors in Turkey, Cyprus and Malta, which might be affected by future EU accession.Administratively these reports are the result of the study under part B of the study on thesituation of enterprises, the industry and the service sectors in Turkey, Cyprus and Malta.This study suffers from important data limitations. In addition to difficulties generally applicable to services data, data collection proved to be difficult because statistics tend to vary among various sources.This publication has been prepared in the framework of a study contract. The views expressed may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission. 

 

 

    Economic performance 

 

       Turkey is the 18 th most visited country in the world and ranks 13th in tourism income. The Turkish Ministry of Tourism expects the country to be the 11 the most popular tourism destination world-wide in 2005, with over 20 million tourists. The period from 1960 to 1997 was mainly investment-driven; the country enjoyed high growth rates in terms of tourist arrivals and tourism income. Emphasis was put on the creation of supply(such as accommodation and infrastructure) rather than on the promotion or marketing of products. Since the beginning of the nineties, the number of incentives to construct hotels and restaurants has declined, resulting in a more demand-driven growt.

 

    According to the Turkish Tourist Board, both domestic and foreign tourism are

growing. Overnight stays of domestic tourists have doubled since 1991. This is mainly due to the increasing wealth of high-income groups. Business travel abroad is also rising sharply because of liberalisation policies. Nevertheless, the most important aspect of tourism in Turkey is international tourism, which accounted for 71% of total overnight stays in tourism accommodation in 1999. 

 

 

      Capital investment 

 

 

      In the 1980s, capital investment in tourism enjoyed incentives for tourism

investment. After the abolishment of the incentive scheme in 1991, investments were reduced, only to pick up again as a result of increased tourist arrivals.

 

Bibliography:  TYD, Selected Data on Turkish Tourism 2001, June 2002.

http://www.dto.org.tr/en/data/TR%27DE%20TUR%C4%B0ZM-EN.pdf