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Vacation in Turkey Becomes More Affordable as Lira Hits Record Lows

Turkey is widely famous as a vacation destination. Istanbul hotels attract tourists interested in sightseeing and rich heritage of the country, and cities like Antalya and Bodrum are well-known and established summer resort destinations. Just like almost all countries in the world, Turkey closed its border to limit the spread of the coronavirus but the country reopened it later. As the national currency, Turkish Lira, keeps falling, it becomes even cheaper to enjoy a vacation in this country.

On August 7, Turkish Lira hit an all-time low rate against the U.S. dollar. The national currency fell to 7.36 liras per 1 U.S. dollar, but the exchange rate retraced to 7.20 soon after that. Several factors push the Turkish currency down. The country keeps accumulating its debt but President Erdogan refuses to increase interest rates. While many industries might become affected by the falling lira, this might actually help local tourism. Many popular destinations around the world suffer from a decrease in tourist arrivals of 50% and more, but experts think that the crisis will be not so dramatic for Turkey. The expected decrease in international arrivals in 2020 is only 31.6% compared to last year.

The number of people with identified coronavirus in Turkey is almost equal to the number of cases in such European countries as Italy and France (almost 240 thousand). At the same time, such well-known tourist markets and major rivals of Turkey as Spain and Egypt had had a higher or the same number of Covid-19 cases.

As the number of new cases quickly went down, Turkey was able to reopen its borders starting from June 1. As the destination is considered safe, more tourists plan to visit Turkey. Many destinations remain closed, and so foreign tourists consider booking hotels in Antalya and Alanya. British travelers have always been important for the country. Britain is the third-largest source market for Turkey, and as many as 2.44 million guests from this country visited Turkey last year. As there are limitations concerning summer vacation in Spain, more tourists might choose Turkey instead.

The weak national currency was one of the most important drivers in the rapid development of tourism in Turkey. Despite terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2017, the country quickly recovered, once again proving its title of one of the most famous resort destinations in the world.

19.08.2020

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