President of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) Firuz Baglikaya criticized the recent speech of the Minister of Tourism of the Republic Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, in which the official positively assessed the growth in inbound tourist flow and, as a result, an increase in income.
In particular, a few months ago, analysts predicted that in 2022, 45 million foreign guests would visit Turkey and bring $35 billion to the country’s budget. For the republic, this would have been a good result relative to 2021, when the tourism sector’s profit was only $25 million.
However, now the Ministry of Tourism is expecting even higher numbers thanks to the latest statistics: 16.7 million tourists have already visited Turkey in the first 6 months, which is 186% more than in 2021. This gave Mehmet Nuri Ersoy a new forecast: for 2022, the tourist flow will be 47 million people, and the income will be $37 billion.
According to Firuz Baglykaya, such figures look good only in macroeconomic terms. However, you need to consider not just the number of travelers and the total profit, but per capita income.
“Over the six months of 2022, our per capita tourism income is down about 6% compared to the same period in 2021: $818 last year and $770 this year. In this regard, the situation is getting sadder every year,” the expert explained.
Firuz Baglykaya explained this by the fact that since 2019, Turkey has set a course for budget tourism, trying to make a profit from the total number of tourists. And the pandemic has only exacerbated this trend.