The end of the summer season for Ukrainian and Russian tourists in Turkey marked the beginning of the mass closure of hotels for the winter. According to Turkish media, 90% of the 250 four and five-star resort hotels in Antalya province, and especially in the resort area of Manavgat Side, are closed for the winter.
According to the President of the Association of Investors in Tourism TİSOYAB Hussein Idogan, the tourist season of 2021 is over – except for hotels that serve guests 12 months a year, but 90% of other hotels in the region are ready to close, and most open hotels will be completely closed to 23 November.
“The tourist season in our region began on June 23 with the arrival of Russian tourists. The dominant nation in the season were the Russians. In second place were emigrants living in European countries and citizens of Arab countries. The Poles took third place, the Germans – fourth, the Ukrainians – fifth, and the British – sixth. We hope that summer Germans and Europeans will spend their holidays in open hotels in the winter, ”he said.
The Turkish expert also reported on the figures: the number of Russian tourists coming to Antalya has reached a total of 4.5 million. The resort hosted about 35% of the 16 million foreign tourists who came there before the pandemic. The resort provides 4.5 billion euros in foreign currency inflows into the country’s economy.
“With the closure of hotels on November 15-20, 80% of the 114,000 tourism workers working in the field of tourism will be unemployed for 5-6 months until May 1. We need to diversify tourism to hire tourism workers for 12 months a year,” added Mr. Idogan.