Tourism In Turkey / Tourism History of Turkey, Milestones of Tourism Industry In Turkey

In terms of its geographical location, Turkey has been being centre of travelers for ages. In this post, I tried to lay out the tourism history of turkey...
22 May 2010
2 minutes read
Assignments
2
 Tourism
10

'Tourism Management Project Assignment / International Tourism Management Collage, ITM Collage, Semmering - Austria, 2008'

Turkey should be separated into 2 parts asbefore and after the Republic of Turkey. During the period of Ottoman Empire, Orient Express can be practically regarded as an activity which enabled tourismto be born in Turkey. Railway was the most useful way to travel and it was theonly tourism infrastructure at those times.

In 1923, Republic of Turkey was founded andtourism began to change as the society of Turkey transformed into new, modernsociety. Some guilds related to tourism began to be established. Another bigstep was the foundation of Turkish Airlines in 1925. Tourism evidently developed until the World War II. During the World War II, tourism in Turkey was affected as happened in the other countries.

After the World War II, tourism industry began to be concerned governmentally. A new legislation in order to stimulate entrepreneurs to invest on tourism by giving credit with very low interest was come into force. There is no doubt that it would affect the whole tourism industry within following years.

Foundation of TÜRSAB (Association of Turkish Travel Agencies) enabled tourism industry to get organized easier. Nevertheless industry did not have a legislation which rules the sector. Because of that the Law of  Travel Agencies and The  Association of Travel Agencies was put into action in 1972.

Also, airports were being constructed andterminals upgraded to handle ever-growing passenger traffic. Several maritimeports were either under construction or being planned to relieve congestionaround Turkey's industrial and commercial centers within those periods. As the superstructure side, numbers of accommodation establishments was increasing andnew travel agencies was opening.

Turkey is destination of mostly leisure travelers, business travelers and sightseeing travelers. Coastal tourism is much more developed than the other tourism fields. Turkey has been a centre of sightseeing travelers through wealth of its historical sites.


THE FACTS AND FIGURES

2001
 2002
 2003
 2004
 2005
 2006
 2007
International Tourist Arrivals (1000)
 10,652
 12,782
 13,341
 16,826
 20,273
 18,916
 22,248
International Tourism Receipts (Million US$ )
 8,597
 9,010
 13,203
 15,888
 18,152
 16,853
 -


1995

2000

2003

2004

2005

2006

Tourism Expenditure (Billion - US $)

0,9

1,7

2,1

2,5

2,9

2,7

 

2005

2006

2007

Hotel Performance in Istanbul (Occupancy %)

74,6

71,2

73,8

*These figureswere taken from UNWTO Barometers published 3 times within a year.