Sebahat Ece Baysal Güngör has been elected president of the Marmaris Chamber of Commerce (Marmaris Ticaret Odası, MTO), the main business body in one of Muğla’s busiest tourism and yachting towns, İhlas News Agency (İHA) reported on Saturday.
Güngör won 26 votes in a ballot of the chamber’s council on 24 October, against 6 for İdris Akgül, according to the report. Two of the 35 council members did not take part. The vote was held under the supervision of the district election board, with three ballot boxes set up. Akgül will stay on as a council member in the new term.
A change of leadership
The result completes a turnover at the top of the chamber. In the first stage of the election on 18 October, held at Sabancı High School, the Blue List (Mavi Liste) led by Akgül won 11 of the chamber’s 13 professional committees and took 30 of the 35 council seats, with 1,238 votes against 931 for the White List (Beyaz Liste), İHA said.
The White List was headed by the outgoing president, S. Mutlu Ayhan. Ayhan lost the vote in his own professional committee by three votes and will not sit on the new council, the agency reported.
In Saturday’s session the council also chose Murat Erhan Demir and Gökhan Kemal Kaya as delegates to the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), the national umbrella body for chambers. As chamber president, Güngör becomes a delegate automatically. Members of the board of directors and the disciplinary board were also elected, and the heads and deputy heads of the 13 professional committees were confirmed. The council is due to elect its own chair, deputy chairs and clerk later in the week.
Why chambers matter on the coast
In Türkiye, companies and many sole traders must register with their local chamber of commerce or of commerce and industry. The chambers issue trade registry documents and certificates, represent local business in talks with ministries and municipalities, and lobby on issues such as tourism season length, infrastructure and staffing. In resort towns like Marmaris, where hotels, marinas, yacht charter firms, estate agencies and restaurants make up much of the membership, they are often a leading voice on how the season went and what the town needs.
The new leadership takes over as the Aegean and Mediterranean coast heads into the low season. Resorts in the region have been stretching the season into a so-called yellow summer, although national data show hotel employment falling this year. Marmaris also continues to welcome cruise ships late in the year, and this weekend hosts the final of a large open-water swimming series with around 2,400 swimmers from 22 countries.
For foreigners weighing up Marmaris against other coastal towns, our guide on where to buy property in Türkiye compares prices and lifestyles, while new direct flights from Dalaman and Bodrum to Germany are planned for summer 2027.
Sources
Photo: Max Bovkun / Unsplash License, via Unsplash
