Tourism in Turkey

A Comprehensive Overview and Analysis for Sustainable Alternative Tourism

Ahmet Salih İkiz

• Publisher: Apple Academic Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781774638231
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000170726
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Tourism in Turkey: A Comprehensive Overview and Analysis for Sustainable Alternative Tourism is an informative study that analyzes the Turkish tourism from a variety of different perspectives and sheds light on its vast economic and social impacts. The volume takes into account Turkey's popularity as a tourism destination that attracts many visitors, compared to the other popular destinations, yet its per capita earnings is low and suffers from declining foreign visitors. This volume emphasizes sustainable alternative tourism as a way forward.

The Turkish hospitality and travel sector contribute significantly to the country's GDP and is responsible for a considerable level of employment in Turkey. The volume discusses the development stages of tourism sector in Turkey in the light of policy changes that parallel the economic, political, social, and administrative transformations in Turkey. With the country's favorable location, existing potential, mega projects, and ambitious targets set for 2023, the tourism sector needs to implement sustainable tourism measures in order to grow.

CHAPTER 1

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GENERAL FRAMEWORK OF TURKISH TOURISM: TOURISM AND TRAVEL COMPETITIVENESS INDEX AND TURKEY

A. S. İKIZ

Faculty of Economics & Administrative Studies, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Turkey

* Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

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ABSTRACT

Turkish tourism industry plays crucial role in macroeconomic context in country. Thus, it became a main remedy for acute current account deficits. But the number of incoming tourists cannot reflect the revenues of sector. Even though there is sharp increase in the number of visitors, the average spending is declining. In this paper, we fist define travel competitiveness index and effects of Turkish tourism sector. We then try to evaluate Turkish tourism industry output via this index.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Travelers and tourists spend their money on a vast variety of goods and services in host countries. These expenditures are main revenues for the host country by creating income injection under economic bases. These revenues depend upon income creation by foreign currencies brought to the country for touristic purposes. In this chapter, we first provide information about the general framework of the Turkish tourism industry. Global competition is a vital part of the industry, so the travel and tourism competitiveness index (TTCI) plays a vital role in evaluating countries’ potential from an industry point of view. In the following part, the TTCI pillars and the Turkish tourism industry’s strengths and weaknesses are briefly explained. In the last part of the chapter, policy recommendations for the Turkish tourism industry are discussed.

1.2 ECONOMIC GROWTH AND TOURISM REVENUES IN TURKEY

Tourism is classified as the second largest industry in the global context. It creates jobs, employment more than most industrial production in some cases. The direct and indirect impacts of income generation by tourism expenditures may easily be traced in the following chart.

FIGURE 1.1 The effects of tourism expenditure.

Source: Ennew (2003), htt­p:/­/ci­tes­eer­x.i­st.­psu­.ed­u/v­iew­doc­/do­wnl­oad­?do­i=1­0.1­.1.­567­.87­1 3&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world in recent years. Its linkages with other sectors are quite strong in the gross domestic product (GDP) generation process. Tourism-led growth thus has important aspects of the globe.

Some studies have found no evidence of tourism-led growth in Turkey (Öztürk and Acaravcı, 2009). One may easily infer that the low level of the spending pattern of tourists creates such a pattern. Tourism revenues make a positive contribution to economic growth in most developing countries (Ekanayake and Long, 2012). Tourism revenues have positive impacts on the balance of payments in the service sector part and create surplus in foreign reserves that most developing countries have. The increase in these revenues may accelerate economic growth in these countries as well.

Thus, governments’ policy choice on attracting premier selective tourists in developing countries would promote tourism as a potential source of economic growth. In the meantime, most developing countries need financial capital to fund their development. Tourism seems to be a good option to increase the amount of foreign currency needed to deal with this problem. For this reason, it appears that developing nations are focused on policies to increase the number of foreign guests in their countries (Dincer et al., 2015).

The Turkish tourism industry has had much more vital importance in the GDP after 1980 by increasing private investments in the sector (Keskin and Cansız, 2010). Since foreign tourists’ spending generates more direct and induced income on GDP, it has important aspects for Turkish economy (Liu et al., 1984).

Tourism-led growth hypothesis for Turkish economy reveals that both international tourist arrivals and international tourist expenditures positively affect the economic growth in Turkey. The results indicate that, in the long run, economic growth in Turkey is strongly influenced from the tourism expansion policies of the respective governments (Savaş et al., 2010). The multiplier...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• About The Editor
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. General Framework of Turkish Tourism: Tourism and Travel Competitiveness Index and Turkey
• 2. The Place and Importance of The Tourism Sector in Turkish Economy
• 3. Critical Review of the Tourism Planning History of Turkey
• 4. Alternative Types of Tourism that Can Be Applied for Sustainable Tourism in Turkey
• 5. An Evaluation Of Cittaslow (Slow City) Movement In Turkey In Terms Of Sustainable Development
• 6. The Importance of Local Products Related to Tourism: An Analysis of Turkey’s Geographic Indicator Map of Local Attractions
• 7. Touristic Preferences of Citizens Resident Abroad and Foreigners: Discriminant Analysis Application
• 8. The Importance of Environmental Management Practices in Hotels
• 9. A Critical Evaluation of Social and Environmental Impacts of Tourism Development in Turkey
• Index