Perception of high prices leads to last-minute discounts

Turkey is now positioned as an 'expensive country' in tourism. While a vacation is a dream for domestic tourists, foreigners have started preferring alternative destinations. With hotel occupancy rates not at the desired levels, hotels in Bodrum, Fethiye, and Kaş have applied average discounts of 10-50% since mid-July.

For instance, the cost for an all-inclusive three-night stay for two at a hotel in Antalya Kemer dropped from 62,400 TL to 29,952 TL with a 52% discount. Similarly, a hotel in Muğla Fethiye reduced its three-night, two-person rate in August from 92,000 TL to 64,584 TL, approximately a 58% discount.

Ertan Ustaoğlu, President of the Turkish Small Hotels Association, stated, 'We have reduced prices by an average of 20-25%. We are now waiting for last-minute reservations. The price reduction has caused a slight uptick in bookings.'

Emphasizing that tourism targets for coastal hotels will not be met, Ustaoğlu added, 'Our current occupancy rates are 50%. Reaching 90-100% occupancy is unlikely. We will consider it good if we close with 70-75%.'

Reminding that there are alternative markets for European tourists, Ustaoğlu said, 'They offer more affordable prices than us because their costs are not as high as ours.'

'WE HAVE LOWERED TOURISM TARGETS'

Ömer Faruk Dengiz, President of the Bodrum Hoteliers Association (BODER), emphasized a 50% contraction in the domestic market. Dengiz acknowledged that foreign tourists are avoiding Turkey due to high prices and said, 'There have been discounts since winter. This is not happening for the first time. Normally, early booking discounts ended by April 30. However, we extended the early booking discounts in stages.'

Adding that they have lowered their tourism targets, Dengiz said, 'Three years ago, our goal was 1.5 million tourists by sea and air, but now our target is an average of 1 million.'

Evaluating the situation in restaurants, Kaya Demirer, President of the Tourism Restaurant Investors and Gastronomy Enterprises Association, said, 'There is a great panic in the south, with fears that all customers either went to Greece or stayed in their summer houses. But the impact of the holiday is being forgotten. The holiday in June saw significant spending by the middle class, and now there is a slowdown. The season, which usually peaks in July-August, started 10-15 days late. I see that faces are starting to smile, especially in the south, from this weekend onwards. There was no problem in the luxury segment, and we are now starting to see signs of improvement in the mid-segment as well.'