Azernews.Az

By Suayip Alabay

Turkish Travel Agencies Association (TURSAB) President Firuz Baglikaya has stated that Turkey’s hotel occupancy rate amounted to 90 percent in May, Yeni Shafak newspaper has reported.

“The occupancy rate is really high. The operating facilities are currently 80-90 percent occupied. This is the first holiday of May. As a result, the places where you may travel on vacation in May are nearly filled in the upcoming period. Other than that, I hope that occupancy rates will rise as the weather warms up in the coming days,” Baglikaya underlined.

He stated that there is an influx of tourists to Turkey due to the complete removal of the pandemic restrictions.

“There is a backlog of unsatisfied travel desires. This year, we'll see how it reflects. Turkey's status is favorable in comparison to other tourism markets. It currently attracts more tourists and has more reservations than other nations in its vicinity. The reason for this is that people haven't been able to go on vacation in a long time, and there's a significant buildup in Turkey's south and west,” Baglikaya stressed.

Turkey will attempt to break its own tourism record in 2022, which was set with 45 million visitors during the 2019 tourist season.

The enthusiastic tourist season was announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish Central Bank opened its doors with 90 percent occupancy after the pandemic restrictions were listed across the world.

According to the TURSAB president, despite the high occupancy rates, there may be a drop in vacation enterprises serving the Russian and Ukrainian markets.

Baglikaya emphasized that the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, as well as the issues that have persisted in previous years, will have a negative impact on tourism.

He added that if the flights from Russia are restored and they return to their normal routine, Ukraine will be Turkey’s only loss in tourism.

"So I'm hoping for a better year than the last. We expected a new record in 2022 because all markets were so open, but that will not happen. However, it does not appear that this year will be a bad one," Baglikaya said.

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