Russian tourist crosses Germany

Antalya hosted 13 million tourists as of November in 2022. By the end of the year, this figure is expected to reach 14 million. This year, Russia was at the top with 3 million tourists in Antalya. Antalya tourism professionals, on the other hand, expect higher figures than 2023 compared to 2022.

Considered as the capital of tourism, Antalya exceeded the number of 13 million tourists as of November. It is thought that Antalya will complete 2022 with 14 million tourists. Antalya tourism professionals think that next year will be a better season compared to this year's figures. This year, Russia surpassed Germany with 3 million tourists and became the country with the highest number of tourists in Antalya. 2 million 800 thousand tourists came from Germany.

Evaluating the year 2022 of tourism in Antalya and Belek region, Cornelia Diamond Golf Resort SPA General Manager Zafer Alkaya said, "The tourism sector had a successful year 2022 after a long break. The biggest advantage of Turkey, especially Antalya and Belek region, compared to its competitors, is its qualified and high quality service. It's time to turn this advantage into a tourism success in 2023. It's time to tell our difference to the world, especially to Europe, in 2023. We are the only tourism country in the world that perfectly implements the 'all-inclusive' system. "It has managed to become the focus of attention of all world tourists in all-inclusive service with the rain of services. We are at a level to compete in the best way with our competitors such as Spain, Portugal and Greece for luxury tourism in Antalya and Belek region."

"We have high hopes that next year will be better than 2022"
Alkaya said, "The year 2022 was a very good season despite some question marks. The numbers are at a satisfactory level, it was a year that brought the shine of 2019. We saw that there was an influx of tourists to Antalya, especially beyond what we expected. We think that this trend will continue in 2023. We have high hopes that it will go better than 2022," he said.

"Antalya exceeded 13 million tourists as of November 2022"
Providing information on the number of tourists hosted in Antalya in 2022, Alkaya said, "Antalya has exceeded 13 million tourists as of November 2022. I think we will reach 14 million tourists by the end of 2022. Russia, which is our fear and concern, is 2.5-3 million tourists. "It really surprised us by reaching the number of numbers. Germany followed Russia and gave a good performance," he said.

Stating that some leagues took a break due to the World Cup, Alkaya said, "Almost all of our Spor Toto Super League teams came to Antalya to camp. We hosted Konyaspor in our facilities."

"Accommodation tax is extremely natural"
Evaluating the accommodation tax to be applied as of January 1, 2023, Alkaya said, "Accommodation tax is a tax applied in almost all countries. Therefore, it is very natural that it will be applied in our country as well. Of course, there are some question marks about the way of implementation. We anticipate that the question marks will dissipate and become much clearer over time.”

Alkaya said, "We started to receive a lot of tourists from the UK, together with European countries such as Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the golf market. We started to receive a significant amount of British tourists, and Ukraine, which did not give up on us under any circumstances, was in the fourth place, but this year it was very "Even though they wanted to come, Ukraine could not come this year due to this special situation, the Ukrainian market has decreased to a minimum. In other markets, recovery started in 2022 and we started to reach very good numbers," he said.

"The Russians surpassed Germany this year to become the country with the highest number in Antalya"
Alkaya said, “After the pandemic, people's holiday desire really peaked. Our numbers are satisfactory in terms of the number of tourists. Therefore, we look at 2023 as a year that increased our market shares and reached new markets. This year, we host guests from new countries that we have never hosted before. Countries that have never been to Turkey before, started to come this year, these are very pleasing developments," he said.

Stating that a question mark arose when the Russia-Ukraine crisis began, Alkaya said, "This question mark soon dissipated. Russia continued to send a significant amount of tourists in 2022. There was a large air traffic on the Russian side. The Russians again reached the highest number in Antalya this year. As the Russian tourists, our goal was to exceed 5 million, but around 2.5 - 3 million Russian tourists came, although there was a significant decrease in the number, we reached the figures that met the expectations. We received 2 million 800 thousand tourists from Germany. "Germans prefer budget hotels. Third Sunday, we call it the 'rising market'; England is on the rise. In fact, the target of receiving 3-4 million British tourists is currently set for Antalya," he said.

Alkaya said, "The Russian market in June 2022 showed itself immediately. In terms of Antalya, Poland took the fourth place this year. The Netherlands took the fifth place with 450 thousand people. Kazakhstan was in the sixth place with 360 thousand 400 thousand Kazakh tourists. Romania is again one of the important markets. , took the seventh place. Romania also shows interest in luxury goods, villas. The eighth market is a market that never existed but is now emerging, Israel. This year, 275,000 Israelis arrived. The 9th market is Czechia, which is again a rising, promising for us market. As a group, we hosted tourists from 66 countries, mainly Russia, England, Germany, Kazakhstan, Romania, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Croatia. In this sense, the Eastern European market also caused us to gain a significant tourism income." said.

Alkaya said, “Reservations for villas and suites, especially in countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkic Republics, are going very well. In the domestic market, we would not have received such high demand before, standard rooms would have been preferred more, but we started to receive very intense villa and suite reservations in the domestic market. We think that this interest will continue in 2023”.