Turkey: Hotel occupancy rate down by half in H1

The hotel occupancy rate across Turkey was 33.4% in the first half of 2020, during the peak period of the coronavirus pandemic, down 47.3% from the same period last year, a hotel association said on Friday.

The sector's revenue per available room (RevPAR) and average daily rate (ADR) for rooms also posted decreases, according to the Turkish Hotel Association (TUROB).

RevPAR stood at €19.2 ($21.1), down 56%, while ADR for rooms dropped by 16.6% to €57.7 year-on-year in January-June period.

In Europe on average, the hotel occupancy rate was 21.6% and RevPAR was €17.7 over the same period.

Meanwhile, the occupancy rate was 37.2% in Turkey’s world-famous touristic city of Istanbul and 32.5% in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya.

In June, the occupancy rate was 21.2%, while RevPAR and ADR stand at €11.5 and €54.4 respectively.

Turkey welcomed 4.5 million foreign visitors in the first half of 2020, down 75% year-on-year, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry data on Friday.

After appearing in China last December, the novel coronavirus outbreak spread all around the world, causing millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Efforts to stem the virus’ spread – focusing on people staying at home and avoiding most human contact – have hit economies hard, especially the tourism and travel sectors.

After February, Turkey postponed the tourism season until June and cancelled a number of events such as fairs and expos.

With a normalization process starting in June, tourist facilities in Turkey reopened with rigorous measures to ensure safety and avoid the virus.