Rising real estate prices coupled with the economic crisis could mean that a popular Turkish resort will soon run out of hotels. That’s exactly what the tourism experts of the popular resort of Bodrum in the Mugla province said – they sounded the alarm because almost 10,000 hotel places have been converted into residences and apartments over the past year.
“Dozens of hotels in Bodrum have turned into residences and apartments, starting to rent their rooms for long-term rent to lodgers and leaving the field of tourism,” explained Sabahattin Duman, president of the Association of Professional Hotel Managers of Bodrum (BOYD). According to him, already in 2022 “the work of professionals in the hotel business has become unbearable”, but even bigger problems await hotels in the tourist season of 2023.
“Excessive increase in food prices, peak electricity costs, 50% increase in the minimum wage, reduced demand due to the economic crisis and sanctions against Russia, the inability to find staff because living in Bodrum is increasingly expensive for Turkish citizens due to excessive rising rents, and finally problems with the purchase of alcohol and local politics,” the expert listed the problems. Added to this was the mandatory tourist tax of 2%, introduced this year, which the expert described as “huge injustice”.
As Mr. Duman added, under these circumstances, hotels of various types are closing one after the other and “reclassifying” to apartments and residences “to benefit from high rents.” At the same time, a huge number of jobs are lost, which are necessary for the functioning of these objects as hotels. “In general, hotels with a volume of almost 10,000 beds were reclassified as real estate for rent. If this continues, soon there will be no hotels left in Bodrum,” the Turkish expert summed up.