Tourism Development and Trends in Turkey

Research suggests that the tourism industry, known to affect over sixty sectors, is a major source of income in our country, as in many other countries. Its contribution to close the deficit in the balance of payments and to alleviate unemployment as it is a labour-intensive sector, demonstrates its importance. Moreover, while enabling foreign currency inflow for the country, the fact that it achieves this with minimal import, places the tourism sector in a truly “national and domestic” sector position. For this reason, it has been declared as a “strategic sector” by the Presidency.

Having knowledge on which markets Turkey is specialized or not specialized, in comparison to competing countries and examining the areas where it has a competitive advantage or disadvantage is important in terms of policies and regulations to be implemented by the local and central administration bodies, as well as determining the strategies and management approach involving the future of the sector. Within this scope, the sectoral development of tourism and hotel management and new trends in Turkey are examined in this book and with the shift-share analysis among Mediterranean countries, dynamics are addressed. In the context of tourism, whether other countries and Turkey are specialized, in which country markets, has been examined. Besides constituting a resource for researchers studying tourism dynamics and trends, this book is intended to guide tourism policy and strategy developers and local administrations.

Mehmet Bahar born in Izmit in 1968, completed his higher education at Dokuz Eylül University, Aydın School of Tourism and Hotel Management after his primary, secondary and high school educations. He received his master’s and doctorate degrees in Tourism and Hotel Management from Akdeniz University. After working at every level of the sector, he worked as a senior manager in many national and international hotel chains until 2014. He worked actively at Celex Travel, a family business between 2014 and 2019, then he started to give lectures at the University of Cappadocia on “Tourism and Hotel Management” as of 2019, at the associate, undergraduate and graduate levels, to transfer his experience in the sector to new students. Bahar is continuing his duties at the university and is a member of many non-governmental organizations such as the Professional Hoteliers Association, Skal International Antalya, Tourism Writers Association and Futurists Association. The author expresses his views on current issues in the form of a column on the tourism portal www.turizmdays.com.

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