The tourism sector, which closed last year with 51.8 million tourists and 34.5 billion dollars of income, returned to the figures before the crisis and went out again. After the aircraft crisis with Russia, the crisis invoice that came before the sector in 2016-2017 reached 40 billion dollars, while the tourist broke this difficult period with the return of the domestic tourists, and then the return of foreign tourists, which it made records.
Despite the economic crisis, the sector enters 2020 with moral and big goals. Especially, Turkish tour operators, which have successfully undertaken large purchasing operations abroad, are expected to contribute to 2020 targets. The biggest test for the industry in 2020 is expected to be the follow-up loan debt and restructuring processes that increased from 2.5 percent to 7 percent in 3 years.
They expect a growth of 10-20 percent in revenues for this year, pointing to Turkey Tourism Investors Association President Oya Narin, also he drew attention to the speed of change hands in the industry. We talked to Narin about this year’s predictions and goals.
Turkey Tourism Investors Association President Oya Narin
RECORD STAMP TO 2019
On the one hand, tax regulations,On the other hand, we left 2019 behind with records. What were the events that marked the year for the investor?
The event that left its mark on 2019 must have broken this record, we must live this happiness. We have left behind a major and uncontrolled crisis. Now our trend is rising. On the other hand, the increase in costs was one of the important factors.
Although devaluation provides an increase in our revenues, our costs are in foreign currency.
There is an increase there as well. In parallel, there is a reflection of the exchange rate difference on the balance sheets in foreign currency loans. The most important issue was the Thomas Cook event in 2019. This surprised us all. Until a few years ago, tourism was one of the sectors where the banking sector was most satisfied.
In the last 3 years, non-performing loan ratios have increased from 2.5 percent to 7 percent. How will this affect the continuity of investments?
I think this situation will be solved. We have to understand the structure of our industry well. The sector has a capital intensive structure. The return of this investment is between 12-16 years when you build world class facilities. While we were able to build a hotel for 20-30 million in the past, we are now looking at how we can multiply and divide it to below 70 million. Today the cost of the products is high, the return is long.
EFFECTIVE PERIOD FOR INVESTMENT
Do you expect high debt rates to trigger handoffs in the industry?
An appetite period can be entered for the investment environment. It will be a period when investors with excess capital can easily invest. a high return for investors for the sector would be a huge growth in Turkey.
If certain allocations are opened in Antalya, it may be an investment. Istanbul will be a little more active. The importance of branding will increase in the new period. More investors will want to act under umbrella brands and increase their income.
These could be Turkish chains and new brands.
TAKES THE FIRST STEP OF 30 YEARS OF CONVERSION
At this point, together with TÜ-SİAD, you kept a projection on the tourism sector over 5 scenarios. What kind of transformation does the modeling in these 5 scenarios indicate?
Promotion activities have started with the tourism promotion agency. Contemporary needs are very different now. New tourists want to wonder, see, sometimes stay longer. It needs to be expanded and transformed along the coastline, taking into account the needs of the next 30-40 years.
There is a large capacity in Mersin-Tarsus and İskenderun regions. Our municipalities are very active now. They will make the transformation in these cities. Bodrum lives 12 months, Marmaris 6 months, Didim less.
We have to spread this over time. This will happen with the zoning plan and infrastructures.
TURKISH OPERATORS WILL SIGN THE NEW RECORDS
Would 2020 be a new record year?
There are different exits in 2020. There are players who expect growth of up to 20 percent. This figure will fit between 10-20 percent of tape. It will be a different year for us because we are entering a period when Turkish investors are more active in tour operations in international markets.
Especially in the Russian market, we owe a lot to Turkish tour operators. The face of Turkish tourism has changed. These operators are now deployed in Germany and England. We will see the difference this will bring. These will be headlines to increase revenues.
