Rocketing inflation in Türkiye is driving its citizens abroad rather than benefitting the domestic market, stakeholders claim.
90% inflation in some places
Soaring prices in the Turkish hospitality sector are reflected in the country’s inflation figures, which flambéed to a colossal 75.4% in May 2024 and have only just recently cooled slightly to 71%, but the issue goes back further, to 2023, elections and an attempt by the Erdogan administration to control foreign currency.
“Actually, this problem started last year when the Turkish government took steps to suppress foreign currency,” Kıvanç Meriç, Chairman of the Izmir Regional Representative Board of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB), told Euronews Travel.
Online commentary reveals Turkish spenders reeling from the cost of meals out and cultural activities, which in some places is running at over 90% inflation according to consumer indexes.
Turkish tourists holidaying elsewhere
The spiral is hitting Turkish hospitality hard. Representing around a third of the country’s whole services economy, the sector has been singled out by the Central Bank as a concern. Despite some unusual drivers for inbound Turkish tourism, hotel room occupancy on Türkiye’s Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines is sitting around 80% maximum, instead of the usual seasonal high of up to 95%.
Our citizens have the chance to go abroad at a lower cost. At home, the price of hotels remains high.
Kıvanç Meriç, Chairman of the Izmir Regional Representative Board of TÜRSAB
Domestic tourists are heading to neighbouring Greece, or other Balkan destinations instead, where in today’s economic environment, they get more for their money. Those choices are partly driven by a new visa arrangement between Greece and Türkiye, announced in spring 2024.
Instead of having to go through a complex Schengen bloc entry process, would-be Turkish visitors to Greece can now head over to 10 Greek islands, (Chios, Kalymnos, Kastellorizo, Kos, Leros, Lesbos, Limnos, Samos, Symi, and Rhodes) for up to a week, with just a passport check, a finger print, and a 60 euro fee – well worth it, if social media reports of Turkish restaurant prices at over 100 euros per person are to be believed.
While some Turks blame the hospitality sector for price gouging, or using “inflation as a pretext to push up prices,” as Murat Yavuz, a retired Turkish banker, put it to the Financial Times, Meriç denies this, saying that businesses “do not raise their prices for higher profits. On the contrary, our prices are also increasing due to the high costs.”
