Turkey’s Tourism Is Experiencing Three Holidays Of Excitement

Turkey closed the year 2023 with records in tourism.

Eyes are now turned to 2024. New record expectations have already started.

Shortly before the summer season, domestic market activity in tourism has started.

The reason is Nowruz, Easter and Ramadan…

Sector representatives preparing to enter the season with three holidays, hotels have prepared special concepts for Nowruz, which started on March 21, with Iranian tourists coming mainly.

Germany ranks first

İsmail Çağlar, a sector representative in Antalya’s Kundu region, said that Turkey is the leader in reservations, “Especially this year we expect about 4 million tourists from Germany, which is a very serious figure. As you know, Germany was the first market for many years, especially in Antalya. In recent years, Russia had taken the first place. Germany is taking the first place again.”

“We open the season 1 week earlier than England”

Explaining that the UK, which exceeded 1 million tourists for the first time last year, is also positive, Çağlar said, “The season from the UK starts early. While British tourists normally arrive around April 1st, this year the British will start arriving around December 24th. We are opening the season 1 week earlier than the UK and the signals there are also good. There does not seem to be any negativity.”

3 holidays back to back

On March 21, Ismail Caglar said that Iranians experienced intense activity with the Nowruz Feast and explained that 50-60 percent of the occupancy in the hotels in the region is made up of tourists from Iran.

Çağlar said, “This year there was a situation like this. Many holidays overlapped. On March 21, we started with Nowruz. On March 31, Easter begins. This leads to a serious mobilization in Western Europe in a positive sense. Then our Ramadan will start. The 45-day process will flow like this continuously.”

Easter after Nowruz

Stating that there is a serious flow of guests from Iran these days, İsmail Çağlar said, “Turkic Republics and Iranians are spending Nowruz as a holiday. There are serious occupancy in our hotels right now. For example, 60 percent of our hotel is made up of Iranians. Nowruz holiday period will continue for about two weeks. On March 31st, Easter will begin. Guests will come from the Netherlands and England markets, especially Germany.”

Eid al-Fitr, the last holiday before the season

Stating that the Ramadan Feast will start later, Çağlar said, “We hope that the domestic market will exceed our expectations during the Ramadan Feast. We are very happy that our President declared the Eid al-Fitr holiday as nine days. Combining the two weekends was very good for us. This year, we will open the season as of April 1, with our hotels ready for the summer concept. In fact, as of March 24, our high season activities from the UK will start and the season will not end on April 1. In other words, all of the hotels will start the high season as of April 1 at the latest.”