May 5, 2022 2:33 p.m. (UTC+04:00)

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By Suayip Alabay

Turkish Travel Agencies Association (TURSAB) President Firuz Baglikaya said hotel occupancy in Turkey stood at 90 percent in May, Yeni Shafak newspaper reported.

“The occupancy rate is really high. The operating facilities are currently 80-90% occupied. It’s the first holiday in May. Accordingly, the places where you can go on vacation in May are almost full in the coming period. Apart from that, I hope occupancy rates will increase as the weather gets warmer in the coming days,” Baglikaya stressed.

He said there was an influx of tourists to Turkey due to the complete removal of pandemic restrictions.

“There is a backlog of unfulfilled travel desires. This year we will see how this is reflected. Turkey’s status is favorable compared to other tourist markets. It currently attracts more tourists and has more bookings than other nearby nations. The reason is that people have not been able to go on vacation for a long time and there is a large accumulation in southern and western Turkey,” Baglikaya stressed.

Turkey will try 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 with 90% occupancy after pandemic restrictions were listed worldwide.

According to the President of TURSAB, despite the high occupancy rates, there may be a decline in holiday companies serving the Russian and Ukrainian markets.

Baglikaya stressed that the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the problems that have persisted in previous years, will have a negative impact on tourism.

He added that if flights from Russia are restored and resume their normal routine, Ukraine will be Turkey’s only tourist loss.

“So I’m hoping for a better year than the previous one. We were expecting a new record in 2022 because all the markets were so open, but that won’t happen. However, it doesn’t look like this year is going to be a bad year.” , says Baglikaya.

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