Tourism professionals “can’t determine future costs and have difficulty determining prices for next year. So, at a popular tourist resort in Turkey, they announced what will happen to vacation prices in 2024. It is about Bodrum, which is preparing to close the tourist season.
According to the Turkish publication Turizm Guncel, this year the resort did not reach its goal of 1.5 million tourists, although it was close to this figure. The number of tourists arriving in Bodrum by plane decreased by 5% this year, while the number of tourists arriving by sea increased by 20%. At the same time, “foreign exchange receipts have increased”, and local experts explain this by “visits of European and qualified tourists”.
As the chairman of the Bodrum Hoteliers’ Association, Omer Farouk Dengiz stated: “Even though a certain number of foreign tourists arrived, foreign exchange earnings per capita increased this season. This means that our most expensive rooms were occupied. We still work based on the model that if the hotel is filled, it will make a profit. This understanding is wrong. In the current process, the fact that the hotel is full does not mean that you will make money,” he said.
The hotel went on to take a somewhat alarming stance, saying hotel owners want to “reach a certain level of occupancy and make a profit without lowering the price too much.” That is, the prices will not be lower next season — hoteliers are “defending” their rights to high prices in every possible way, saying that quality rest costs money.
However, anxiety does not leave them. Bodrum Professional Hotel Managers Association Chairman Sabahattin Duman said that this year the season returned to normal very late. “There were facilities that even celebrated Kurban Bayram at the end of June with 50% occupancy. All facilities reached full capacity in the period from July 15 to 20. Moreover, as a result of the demand reduction that began with the opening of schools, many institutions closed the season at the end of September. Thus, the tourism sector tried to save a year with full employment for two months,” he said. And he also noted the “main enemy”: demand decreased even because a significant part of tourists preferred to rent villas and residences through channels such as Airbnb.
As a result, it seems that hoteliers are in no hurry to guess about the future and predict prices. European tourists, of course, show interest in Bodrum. Then the main trends were described. “If we look at the year 2023 as a whole, the main problem is that costs cannot be predicted. additional costs to us. In 2024, we expect the same nervous situation. On the one hand, the unpredictability of the costs of the domestic market, the uncertainty of the minimum wage, on the other hand, the increase in taxes, inflation in the Eurozone and the decrease in the real value of the euro… We must give a medal to the hotel owner who overcame this spiral and ended the season in a healthy way.” — Mr. Duman summed up.