Viewpoint
A profile of Turkish
tourism
Cengiz Demir
The author
Cengiz Demir is a Research Assistant at The School of Tourism
Administration and Hotel Management, C¸ anakkale Onsekiz Mart
University, Sirinyer, Turkey.
Keywords
Tourism, Turkey, Economics, Entrepreneurs
Abstract
Tourism has been playing an important role in the Turkish
economy since 1980. The year 1983 was the turning point for
Turkish tourism in the national and international tourism market.
Since 1980, the share of tourism receipts in relation to Turkey’s
gross national product and export has been increasing. In this
viewpoint, the place of tourism in the Turkish economy is
examined. Results show that Turkish tourism has been
developing steadily.
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Introduction
Turkish tourism developed rapidly in the 1980s.
Turkey accepted the free market economy and
export-oriented industrialisation model as well as
flexible exchange rate policy and a more liberal
import regime. A new foreign investment policy
became the main locomotive device of the Turkish
economy. In 1982, the Tourism Encouragement
Law was put into effect which gave more authority
to the Republic of Turkey’s Ministry of Tourism.
Some of the incentives to improve Turkish tourism
based on the new legislation were:
.
allocation of public lands to investors on a
long term basis; provision of main
infrastructure by state;
.
long-, medium- and short-term credits for
construction, furnishing and operational
support; and
.
preferential tariff rates for electricity, water,
and gas consumption in priority areas and
centres.
Since the early 1980s, increases in the number of
beds created new tourism demand but, new bed
supply experienced difficulties in sales, and
occupancy levels were below the world average.
The number of beds from accommodation
facilities in operation, licensed by the Ministry of
Tourism reached 230,248 in 2001 (Ministry of
Tourism, 2003a), four times more than the 1980
level. The number of beds in the investment stage
or under construction was 26,288 in 1980, but this
number reached 364,779 in 2001. Occupancy
levels of accommodation facilities averaged around
46 per cent in 2001 which is below world averages
(Ministry of Tourism, 2003b). In order to gauge
progress, Turkish tourism is examined here from
several perspectives.
Turkish tourism development in the
international and national tourism market
According to the residence of visitors, tourism can
be divided into two categories; domestic and
international. Domestic tourism is where the
residents of a country travel within the boundary of
their own country. On the other hand,
international tourism is where people travel
outside their own country. However, international
tourism is much more than simply travelling
beyond the borders of one’s own country. It
encompasses all the services required for the
tourist (Fridgen, 1991, p. 103). International
tourism has two dimensions, active (incoming)
and passive (outgoing) tourism. Incoming,
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
Volume 16 · Number 5 · 2004 · pp. 325-328
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 0959-6119
DOI 10.1108/09596110410540311
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