The Rise of Tourism Investment in Turkey
Recent years in Turkey had not been the best for the country’s tourism sector. However, fresh investments and recovering tourist trust re-flourish Turkey tourism. Turkey Citizenship by Investment Program is one of the contributing factors. Through this program, investors may invest in Turkey by buying property including hotels and other real estate.
550 Million USD into Turkish Tourism Sector
According to the recent reports released by the Hotel Association of Turkey (TUROB), there have been 167 new hotel projects in Turkey in 2018. The report is based on the Investment Incentive Certificates. This new information confirms that bed capacity in Turkey will be increased by 28,661. After two years that have passed with uncertainty and ambiguity, tourism of Turkey starts to recover.
Turkey tourism received 550 million USD of investment last year. It equals to 3.05 billion Turkish Lira based on the currency average of last year. Thanks to these new investments, 8303 jobs will be created in Turkey tourism sector.
In terms of quantity, 2017 was a bigger year for Turkey tourism. There were 192 hotel projects providing an additional 33,259 bed capacity. However, the volume of the investments in 2018 was bigger. Therefore, the investment gained in 2018 by Turkey was approximately 0.6% bigger per application.
The largest city in Turkey, Istanbul was visited by one third of all tourists that travelled to Turkey in 2018. With regards to new hotel in Istanbul proposals, it came in first with 22 new projects that will provide an additional bed capacity of 4,333. Antalya, the tourism capital in the southern province, came second with 17 new prospects with additional 4,128 bed capacity. Muğla from the Turkish Riviera came in a close third with 14 new projects providing 3,413 more bed capacity.
Turkey Tops Europe in Tourism Growth
Turkey tourism performed an increase of 22% in 2018. This impressive percentage resulted in Turkey leading Europe for tourism growth. With this rate, Turkey became the first among 34 European countries.
European Travel Commission’s (ETC) report shows that in 2018 Turkey tourism has grown by 22%. This rate has taken the yearly visitor number above 40 million. To be exact, in 2018, 47 million tourists were in Turkey which is a record for the country.
According to ETC; Turkey, Malta and Serbia were the best performing countries of 2018. Although the economic growth in Europe was not very promising, ETC reports show that tourism within Europe remained strong.
