TÜROB data shows 101 Turkey hotel projects receive development incentives

Although Turkey faced some stagnant periods in its tourism industry for the past two years, the demand for hotel investment has continued to surge in the first have of 2017, Daily Sabah reported. According to the Turkish Hoteliers Association's recent survey, 101 hotels in Turkey's 38 provinces, which have a 16,000-guestroom capacity, received incentive certificates for investments up to TL1.7 billion, registering a 13.5-percent increase in value, in the first six months of the year. 

The survey, which was based on the Ministry of the Economy's Investment Incentive Certificates data, reported that the total number of investments has risen thanks to high-capacity facilities although the number of guestrooms in H1 2017 dropped, in comparison to H1 2016.  

TÜROB, the Turkish Hoteliers’ Association, reported that in H1 2016, incentive applications totaling approximately TL 1.5 billion were given to 94 hotel projects with a combined guestroom stock of 19,124 guestrooms. Compared to the same period last year, H1 2017 saw a 13.5-percent increase in monetary investment. 

However, the data continues to trail 2014's levels, which reached a record TL2.8 billion in investments in the first half of the year. Eight hotel projects of 1,385 guestrooms in seven provinces applied for TL92.3 million worth of incentives certificates in June 2016. Meanwhile, the total amount for incentives reached TL268 million for just 13 hotels of 2,379 guestrooms this past June. 

Antalya, Istanbul, İzmir and Muğla took the lead in the hotel sector for the first half of 2017. TÜROB revealed that nine hotel projects received incentive certificates in each province, with Antalya claiming the largest share of guestrooms at 2,390 in total. 

The Black Sea region also saw a spike in investments, most notably in Trabzon. After President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently called attention to the region's irregular construction, hotel investments increased, especially as interest from tourists from Gulf countries has grown. Timur Bayindir, chairman at TÜROB, also recognized that investments in the region have increased because of the rising tourist numbers. However, he warned, these investments should be made in a controlled way. 

Seven hotel projects in Trabzon worth TL100 million applied for incentive certificates in the first half of 2017 while 12 hotels with 1,451 guestrooms received about TL86 million in incentives in the same period last year. Meanwhile, another 19 hotel projects have already broken ground in the city over the last year and a half. Ordu, Rize and Samsun each received incentive certificates for one hotel in their provinces in the first half of 2017.