Türkiye’s tourism industry is shifting its focus for 2027 from breaking visitor records to protecting profit margins, sector leaders say, after a year in which steady arrivals failed to offset sharply rising costs.
Hoteliers say annual inflation of around 30% has pushed up prices for food, staff and energy, while most of their income is earned in euros and dollars. With the lira relatively stable against those currencies, revenues converted into lira have not kept pace with costs, squeezing real earnings.
A difficult 2026
Müberra Eresin, president of the Türkiye Hoteliers Association (TÜROB), told DW Türkçe that 2026 had been a hard year, citing the Russia-Ukraine war and tension around Iran, including disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. She expects the year to close below expectations, although September and October were strong and she sees signs of recovery. She described the outlook for 2027 as uncertain.
Mehmet İşler, head of the Aegean Touristic Enterprises and Accommodation Association (ETİK), said visitor traffic had been healthy but profits were shrinking. Tourists, he said, have become more price-sensitive and better informed, and they book later, which complicates staffing and cash flow for hotels.
The numbers behind the worry
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has put Türkiye’s 2025 tourism revenue at $65.2 billion. The government’s targets for 2026 were $68 billion in revenue and 65 million visitors.
Ministry data show 34.8 million foreign visitors in January-August, down 1.84% on the same period last year. Istanbul received 12.47 million of them, Antalya 10.28 million and Edirne, on the Bulgarian and Greek borders, 2.95 million. Antalya’s hoteliers have also reported a dip in arrivals even as the airport passed 30 million passengers.
What it means for travellers
For visitors, a profit-first strategy is likely to mean firmer room rates rather than deep discounts, particularly in peak months, and more emphasis on higher-spending segments such as culture, gastronomy and off-season breaks. Late booking may still pay off in shoulder seasons, when hotels compete harder to fill rooms.
One bright spot has been cultural tourism, with Türkiye’s night museum programme drawing a record 1.3 million visitors. Those thinking of spending longer on the coast can compare prices in our Antalya guide.
Sources
Photo: Abdullah kıyga / CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
