Future Growth Of The Tourism Industry

Introduction

Turkey is a European country which is located partly in the Middle Eastern region of the world and partly in Europe. The strategic location of the country offers a wide range of opportunities for the development of Tourism in and around the world. It is a notable tourist destination of the European region and has experienced a large footfall of tourists in the last few years. The picturesque locations and the vast range of historical and archeological sites make it one of the famous tourist destinations across the world. In this following essay the essayist has discussed about the future growth of the tourism industry in Turkey and also the different issues that may hamper the growth of the industry.

Current Issues

The death knell for the tourism industry of Turkey has been sounding repeatedly. Terrorism is the main reason behind such a sudden downslide. The country has been rocked by a large number of terrorist attacks in the recent times. Last year the country experienced devastating attacks which claimed the lives of many people including a large number of tourists. To add salt to the existing woes the opposition organized a failed coup on the ruling government led by President Racep Tayyip Erdogan. The failed coup resulted in a heavy crackdown from the government and close to 6000 people was arrested in connection to the violence. The tourism sector is the most affected as because foreign offices of different countries are though not advising against travel to Turkey but are describing the situation as an unstable one. The country has seen a sharp decrease in the tourist count of 34.7% which has been a serious concern for the industry (Balli, Balli & Cebeci, 2013). The crisis of the tourism sector will affect the economy of the country as because the tourism forms one of the largest contributors of GDP to the economy of Turkey. The tourism companies of the country which used to gain a healthy profit just a few years back are running in losses. The companies are claiming that the attempted coup to de throw the ruling party has damaged the reputation of the tourism sector of the industry (Ak?n et al. 2015).    

Positive Impact of Tourism in Turkey

Turkey is rich in a variety of cultural and natural resources. Such resources are preserved under different laws. The government of Turkey has set up a number of different organizations to preserve and protect the cultural and natural heritage of the country. The mentioned European country has approximately 2700 number of historical ruins which dates back to prehistoric times and are rich in artistic works. Some of them include;

1. Rock Sites of Cappadocia
2. Great Ulu mosque
3. Nemrut mountain in Adiyaman
4. Xanthos- Letoon close to Antalya

The government of Turkey has taken a number of initiatives to attract tourists in the country. This has resulted in both positive and negative impact on the growth of the tourism sector in the country. Some of the positive impacts of Tourism are;

1. Huge Investment- The Government of Turkey has invested a huge sum of money to develop the infrastructure and boost the tourism sector of the country. Providing better transportation, better local facilities, quality accommodation, organizing social and cultural events, engaging local people to a number of jobs related to the tourism sector are some of the initiatives taken by the government to provide better services to the tourists who visit the nation (Giritlioglu et al. 2014).
2. Beautiful decoration- Turkey is a picturesque country with beautiful landscapes. To further boost the tourism sector the authorities have taken up a beautification drive to make the country and the places of tourist interests more beautiful by planting trees and decorating the areas. Since the last few years there has been an increasing number of tourist footfalls in the country and thus a considerable sum of money has been invested to construct sitting areas, rest houses, inns, government sponsored eating places, proper sanitation facilities and drinking water facilities.
3. Creation of Job- The creation of job opportunities is one of the most important factors of tourism. A lot of different jobs both internal as well as external has been created on the rise of tourism in Turkey (Gozgor, Demir, & Bilgin, 2017).
4. Economic Impact- The tourism industry has contributed to the growth of the economy of Turkey. Tourism accounts for a considerable part of the Gross Domestic Production of the country (Polat & Demirel, O, 2016). The factors that have contributed to the growth of the industry includes large scale modern industrialization, education, training, adaption of advanced technologies, large number of qualified individuals, making the market liberal and using strategic marketing to attract foreign investments.

Negative Impact of Tourism in Turkey

1. Environmental Impact- The largest negative impact of the tourism sector is the environmental impact that it brings with it. Littering, spilling wastes, dumping wastes in the areas of tourist interests is a large concern for the organizations. The visits of unruly tourists make life harder for the authorities to tackle them. This is one of the main concerns for the tourism industry of the country.
2. Transit Factors- Transit or transportation is a key negative factor that is relevant to the tourism industry of Turkey. People from all over the world arrive at Turkey by means of air, private cars, railways and water. Usage of such different means of transport leads to tremendous pollution and emission of Carbon-di-Oxide. Emission of such large scale pollution is a cause of concern for the environment (Polat & Demirel, O, 2016).
3. Social Factors- Turkey has a strict cultural heritage that gets disrupted due to the presence of tourists. The cultural life of the people may get disturbed by tourist activities.

Strategic Planning

The government of Turkey has chalked out a Tourism plan and has fixed its implementation deadline of 2023. Tourism has been considered as an essential part for the development of the country. The implementation has to be done in such a way that it needs to have a implementation tool for efforts to remove the cultural and social barriers within the country and boost the economy of the nation. The aims and objectives of planning the tourism are;

1. Concentrating more on the places where organized tourism activities can be set up easily.
2. The government has aimed to implement the tourism plans in the cities or states that provide a competitive edge for tourism in the global market. This includes implementing different types of strategies for developing the tourism activities of the particular area.
3. Achieving a healthy growth rate of around 60% by the mentioned year and having a full occupancy during the peak seasons, while achieving at least 40% occupancy for tourists in lean seasons.
4. Increase the base for the participation in different cultural, social and other programs to steer the development process.

The strategies for the development of tourism has been prepared by the government of Turkey with the help of a number of private consulting companies that have provided some valuable inputs for the development of the tourism sector of the country. There can be multiple ways to implement different strategies such as;

1. Investment- Different measures have to be taken to promote investment in tourism. The government of Turkey has planned to grant certain additional benefits for the industry (Katircioglu, 2014). Special incentives have been announced to be provided by the government to support the sector so that it adds up as a main source of revenue generation which benefits the economy of the country. Tie up with different banks and financial institutions of the country as well as with foreign banks have ensured loan facilities to develop the infrastructure and promote Turkey as one of the best tourist attractions in the world.
2. Organization- The overall success of the travel and tourism industry lies on the effective set up and management of the organization. The ministry of Culture and Tourism has aimed to pursue the efforts as the only responsibility to plan and implement all the areas with the potential to promote tourism. It has also assumed full responsibility to set up and implement legal arrangements, plans and policies that would be directing the tourism industry. A tourism database would also be created to keep a proper idea about the types of tourists, the frequency of tourists and other important information related to the development of tourism.
3. Marketing and Promotion Strategy- Marketing and promotion must be done to promote the tourism of Turkey in a proper way.
4. Transportation and Infrastructure Strategy- The government of the mentioned country has a critical problem that must be solved to enhance and boost the transportation sector of the country. The transportation department of the government in collaboration with the ministry of culture has prepared a detailed roadmap on achieving a proper framework for the organization. A MOU has been signed with one of the leading construction companies of Europe who have been provided the charge to develop the transportation infrastructure of the places of tourist interest.

Evaluation

The strategic planning as prepared by the Government of Turkey has certain features that picture a positive growth of the tourism sector of Turkey (Balli, Balli & Cebeci, 2013). The ministry of culture and tourism has taken some positive steps to ensure the success of the plans. The creation of investment opportunities, making the market open to foreign investors, providing the tourists with adequate facilities, exclusive marketing and promotional strategies and the strengthening of the organization are all equally important for building the best tourism centric infrastructure. As mentioned earlier the formulation of a set of aims and objectives by the government will help Turkey to steer towards a positive growth and be one of the leading forces of global tourism. Such a measure if implemented properly will turn the tide of the Country’s economy.

Butler’s model of Tourism describes that most of the tourist resorts begin their operations on a very small scale and gets bigger and bigger until the market gets stagnated. There are six different stages of the model. They are,

1. Exploration- There are some people who love adventure and crave for some unique experience. They search for places that have a good culture, history and have a natural beauty. Tourist services were not available in Antalya and the main occupation of the people was not tourism. Local people were reluctant to take up tourism as their professions.
2. Involvement- Once there was an improvement in the infrastructure and transportation the local people of Antalya noticed the ever increasing number of visitors in the city and the outskirts. This prompted many of them to start different business related to Tourism like providing hotel facilities, food, guides and many more as such.
3. Development- The larger companies involved in tourism activities saw the chance to invest in the city which was slowly gaining much importance to make sure that they does not fall behind the race to earn profits from the sector. Building hotels, resorts, providing food, providing recreational activities were some of the amenities that were provided to the people visiting the area (Aslan, 2016).
4. Consolidation- The local economy of Antalya is dominated by tourism at this particular stage. Different people staying in Antalya make good use of such an advantage. Other industries on which people earlier used to depend will be suffering as a result (Somer, 2014).
5. Stagnation- Huge competition from other resorts, hotels and different other business related to tourism makes the market stagnant and leaves no opportunity for growth. The trend during this time is the decline in the number of people working in the tourism sector and constant threat of shutdown for the local business.
6. Decline or Rejuvenation- Starting from the stagnation point there are two possibilities which is either the decline of the market or the rejuvenation of the market. Decline may be slow and occurs after a long time but rejuvenation can occur if there is a large scale investment which leads to the opening of new roads for the business to survive.

Conclusion

The research is based on the identification of the different strategies of Turkey in developing itself as a tourist Nation in the near future. The research has met its aims as because it has identified the planning of the country for the coming years to develop itself as a country known for its tourist attractiveness. However the main concerns of the country is the sharp fall in the sector due to the rise in the number of insurgencies. The authorities have been trying hard to stop such events but have not been able to make a remarkable breakthrough. However recent statistics of 2017 shows a rise in the tourist footfalls and even the low rate of cancellations of trips from tourists. Such events show the gradual turnover of the tourism sector and its return to the golden days.

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