Cappadocia, which attracts the attention of tourists with its wide geography adorned with historical, cultural and natural beauties and alternative tour activities, is expected to break new records in tourism in 2024.
Cappadocia, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, hosts more and more tourists every year, thanks to the 12-month tourism season.
Tourism professionals in the region, which hosted approximately 4 million 500 thousand visitors in the 11-month period of 2023, aim to increase the number of tourists in the new year.
“We reached nearly 90% occupancy in hotels”
Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) Board Member Talip Aldemir stated that the calm seen in the first half of the year due to the February 6 earthquakes gave way to intensity as of June.
Reminding that the visitor record was broken in the region in 2023, Aldemir continued as follows:
“As tourists, we think 2023 is a good year, and the numbers already show us this. As we enter 2024, we have reached nearly 90% occupancy in hotels in the Cappadocia region with the New Year’s Eve. We accept this as an indicator of 2024. I think that unless there is an extraordinary situation in the coming year, we will exceed this and break new records in tourism and make great contributions to the country’s economy. If we talk about sea, sand and sun tourism, we can find it all over the world or we can see many works that are 60 years old, 500 years old, 1000 years old. But there is a history of 60 million years here, there are natural formations and we are in a region where many activities can be done. There lies a completely different history here that is not found anywhere else in the world.”
TURSAB Domestic Tourism Specialization Vice President Ismail Sucu also stated that the promotional activities of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism have a positive impact on tourism.
Mentioning that tourism in Turkiye and the region is on the rise in 2023, Sucu said, “I believe that the trend of our Turkiye and the Cappadocia region will continue to rise further, unless there is any factor that will negatively affect tourism in the world. In Cappadocia, in addition to cultural tourism, studies are also carried out on other activities, sports activities and entertainment tourism. These also have a multiplier effect. With activities such as hot air ballooning, Cappadocia has a tourism resource that can attract everyone.”
“We expect more occupancy next year”
Fatmanur Cingil, one of the tourism professionals in the region, said that they experienced the excitement and honor of closing the 100th year of the Republic with a record.
Stating that they usually host guests from the USA, Mexico, Spain and Asian countries in their facilities, Cingil said, “2023 was busier than previous years. Especially the summer season, the occupancy increased. This year was like a cure for us, we started to rise. We expect more density next year.”
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz