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"Turkey could come close to the 30 million visitor target set during the boom this year, according to Turkish property specialists New Home in Turkey. The firm makes a strong case to suggest that, what has been a unique couple of years for Turkish tourism, could propel it to the level expected when the travel industry was much stronger. If not this year then next, says the firm.
"We have just witnessed a unique couple of years for Turkish tourism. In 2009 we had growth from Britain and other places fuelled by the strong euro. This continued into this year, and since the euro strengthened we have seen Turkey's competitors in sovereign debt crises, and a surge in people taking last minute deals to Turkey and other low cost destinations," said director of the firm Aydin Cakir.
The press release goes on to explain how neighbouring (and competing) countries being mired in bad press, is helping Turkey to stand out for the exceptional destination that it is, giving examples as Spain, Greece and Italy, as being hit hard by the recession, and compounded by the subsequent sovereign debt crisis.
Another factor, according to the release is things like the hung parliament and ash cloud stopping people from booing holidays until the last minute. This cause a “late-minute-deal-rush”, of which Turkey was a leading benefactor according to travel agents. To top it all readers of Conde Nast Traveller magazine voted Turkey their favourite world destination. This was “a massive testament to how far Turkish tourism has come and could also propel future growth,” according to Cakir:
"Turkey is a great place to visit, and for everything that brings or signals growth, more growth is born from the subsequent word of mouth. What we also see is that a high proportion of today's holidaymakers become the holiday home buyers of the future, so of course it is good for the property market as well," he said.
"Antalya property is particularly prominent in this trend; we see it having a higher percentage of buyers to tourists going forward,"e; he said.
