Türkiye’s tourism investments will gain momentum this year as interest rates start falling, Oya Narin, president of the Turkish Tourism Investors’ Association (TTYD), said recently, highlighting robust arrivals last year.
Narin, attending the 28th East Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel Exhibition (EMITT) in Istanbul, stated that Türkiye had a good tourism year in 2024.
“The world tourism evolves to where big championships, like the Paris Olympics, are held and despite Türkiye not holding such a high-profile event last year, we ranked fifth in tourist visits and seventh in tourism revenues,” she told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Narin highlighted that Türkiye has been doing well with tourist arrivals this year, but there is a need to make new plans to increase revenue. The association is working on its plan to contribute to shrinking the country’s current account deficit.
“We are waiting for the results of the new economic policies, as investing is not favorable in an environment with such high inflation and high interest rates but as these gradually start falling, we expect a movement in investments after 2025 and 2026,” she noted.
Demand for Istanbul
Narin mentioned that Istanbul will continue its upward trend among other destinations worldwide, as the city offers great opportunities to both domestic and international investors, meaning that the demand for Istanbul will never cease.
“A new trend has started in (the southwestern) Antalya region in terms of branding, as we see a transformation from individual brands to chains, both hotels and brands, and we will see the same in the Aegean region,” she said.
“If new areas could be allocated to these big hotels and chains, new investments could be unlocked, but of course, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is responsible for organizing this, but we’re waiting for announcements,” she added.
Narin stated that branding needs to increase to attract foreign investors to the region as they prefer to buy facilities or build them where brands are, as they offer higher profitability.
“As both Turkish and foreign brands become more widespread, foreign investor interest will increase,” she said.
She mentioned that the current investment attraction is mostly from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with some from Greece.
“Other countries have created attractive incentives and mechanisms to increase tourism, like us and we are also working with such countries, and so long as this work continues, it will get somewhere. Though these countries are trying to catch up with us, we’re ahead enough not to worry about it. However, to hold our position, we need to make a plan until 2033 and 2050s,” she added.
Health tourism
Firuz Bağlıkaya, chairperson of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB), told AA that health tourism has been a “shining star” for Türkiye in recent years, making a difference in average income per capita.
“Health tourism has the capacity to almost double or even triple the tourism income,” he said.
He stated that TÜRSAB has over 1,000 health tourism agencies under its association and has organized 14 health tourism workshops so far.
“Health tourism has gained a serious edge due to our infrastructure and service quality, as Türkiye received around 1.5 million patients, generating an income of around $3 billion. We believe this can go up much higher in a short period, over 5 million patients and a revenue of $12 billion,” he said.
“We need to make serious increases in this area, as Türkiye targets $100 billion in tourism revenues and we need to diversify our segments to meet this goal, not only in health tourism but also in sports, gastronomy and other types of tourism,” he added.
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