“We are becoming a cheap paradise for tourists with foreign currency,” Turkish tourism experts commented on another fall in the Turkish lira. The exchange rate of the lira against the dollar continues to decline and reached 9.18 Turkish lira per dollar. As a result, the “currency panic” may allow tourists to relax cheaper, but the tourism industry itself will have a hard time.
“This increase can be seen as an advantage for hoteliers and exporters, but the negative impact will be felt throughout the market,” – said Yenialanya President of the Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Alanya (ALSİAD) Ali Kamburoglu. However, he said, this increase can be seen as an advantage in terms of tourism, as hoteliers and exporters work with exchange rates.
Representatives of the restaurant industry quickly assessed this as a minus – the chairman of the Chamber of Restaurants and Pensions of Alanya Hussein Degirmenchi said: “As in any other period, the increase in foreign exchange rates will certainly affect all prices throughout the market during this period. We will see its impact on everything from energy to food prices.”
“It is always believed that the growth of foreign currency makes tourism professionals happy and that the inflow of foreign currency into the country will thus increase. However, the situation is just the opposite. The higher the exchange rate, the more tourists, but the amount of foreign currency earned in the country does not increase” said ALTID and ALTAV Vice President Mehmet Dahaoglu. He stressed that as a result, tourists buy goods and services for less foreign currency, and the cost of tourism is growing. “An increase in the foreign exchange rate leads to an increase in prices for all goods and services on the market in the form of a chain reaction. The purchasing power of citizens is declining, and we are becoming a cheap paradise for tourists who own foreign currency,” he said. However, it should be noted that directly for tourists the situation is quite favorable.