Rising property prices along with the economic crisis may lead to the fact that soon there will not be a single hotel left in the popular Turkish resort. That's what tourism experts at the popular resort of Bodrum in Muğla province have said: they sounded the alarm because almost 10,000 hotel beds have been converted into residences and apartments over the past year.
“Dozens of hotels in Bodrum have turned into residences and apartments, starting to rent out their rooms to relocators and exiting the tourism industry,” explained Sabahattin Duman, President of Bodrum Professional Hotel Managers Association (BOYD). According to him, already in 2022, “the work of professionals in the hotel business has become unbearable,” but even bigger problems await hotels in the tourist season of 2023.
“Excessive growth in food prices, peak electricity costs, a 50% increase in the minimum wage, reduced demand due to the economic crisis and sanctions against Russia, the inability to find staff due to the fact that living in Bodrum is increasingly expensive for Turkish citizens due to for excessive rent growth, and finally, problems with the purchase of alcohol and local politics,” the expert listed the problems. Added to this was the mandatory 2% tourist tax introduced this year, which the expert described as “a huge injustice.”
As Mr. Duman added, in these circumstances, hotels of various types close one after another to others and are “reclassified” into apartments and residences “to benefit from high rents”. At the same time, a huge number of jobs are lost, which are necessary for the functioning of these facilities as hotels. “In total, hotels with a capacity of almost 10,000 beds have been reclassified as real estate for rent. If this continues, there will soon be no hotels left in Bodrum,” the Turkish expert concluded.
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