To give up the “all-inclusive” system in the name of big money to get “rich German tourists”, called the Turkish tourism business Erol Güldal, a tourist operator from Side, on the pages of the newspaper Turkiye Turizm. He assured his colleagues that Turkey should switch to a half-board system, as it was before the period of the 2000s, to attract rich German tourists. This is exactly what they did in Greece, the expert explains, and they managed to earn a lot of extra money there.
Mr. Güldahl, who, according to the publication, has been engaged in applied research on German and European tourism for 18 years, said that Turkey and Antalya cannot make enough use of German tourism potential. According to him, 40 million German tourists go on vacation to Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, France, Cyprus, Thailand, the Caribbean, the Maldives, some African countries, the Far East, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Greece, and Turkey. “Germans who go on vacation the most in the world. Germans have a 110-year tradition of vacationing in different countries. And of them, only 5 million come to Turkey every year, this is a very low number,” he said. In addition to the Germans, according to him, the USA, Canada, South Korea, Austria, Luxembourg, England, and the Scandinavian countries are considered to be the countries with the highest potential for vacation spending.
The expert also believed that 35 million tourists came to Greece last year. At the same time, according to his assurance, “in Greece, the concept of “all-inclusive” has completely disappeared, except for 3-5 islands”, and even that “hotel owners have switched to half-board so that German tourists can come”.
“Turkish hotel owners openly say that they cannot make as much money from the all-inclusive system as before. If the half-board system is implemented, the quality of cuisine and restaurants in Antalya will increase, and gastronomic tourism will come to the fore,” Mr. Güldal is confident.
However, it should be noted that surveys of Europeans themselves — at least in the last year — show the opposite picture. Tourists from the country “with a 110-year tradition of recreation and the strongest economy among European countries” pay attention to the increased prices for recreation, the crisis and inflation. And among the most attractive options for future vacations, “all-inclusive” programs are increasingly being called.