{"id":608983,"date":"2026-08-30T06:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T06:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608983\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T06:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T06:48:15","slug":"turkeys-cheap-travel-reputation-is-being-undone-by-high-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608983\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s cheap travel reputation is being undone by high costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent summers, Turkey became a go-to travel destination for UK-based Donna and Dave Needham, who took advantage of the country\u2019s reputation as an affordable getaway on Europe\u2019s doorstep.<\/p>\n

On a trip to Turkey\u2019s Mediterranean coast this summer, however, they said they experienced a \u201cmassive\u201d price difference compared with years past. They were priced out of the resort they\u2019d previously visited and noticed their usual vacation activities had become much more expensive. A 15-minute jet-ski ride, for instance, had jumped to \u00a390 ($122) from \u00a320 just a year ago.<\/p>\n

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The Needhams, schoolteachers who also run a small travel agency, said they\u2019ve visited Turkey with their children five times since 2021. Donna Needham added, \u201cIt won\u2019t be our first choice next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

One culprit is Turkey\u2019s exchange rate policy, in which the pace of the lira\u2019s depreciation is kept below that of inflation. With the exchange rate often seen as a barometer of Turkey\u2019s economic health, officials want to stem the effects that the currency\u2019s weakness has on costs. The aim is to ease inflation and the burden on Turkish consumers, but it also makes the country more expensive to visitors arriving with foreign currencies.<\/p>\n

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Tour operators and travel agencies say this and other factors, such as the proximity of the Iran war, are affecting tourists\u2019 appetite to visit the country as well as operators\u2019 ability to continue to market Turkish destinations affordably.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people used to treat Turkey as a cheap destination,\u201d said Tony Basoglu, who runs a trading company and rents villas in Antalya province, a tourism hotspot. \u201cThat\u2019s no longer the case. People come here and still have a lovely time, but it\u2019s no longer cheap as chips.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ImageBloomberg
\n Overall tourism arrivals fell 3.6% year over year in May, 4% in June and another 0.3% in July, according to data from Turkey\u2019s Culture and Tourism Ministry. European visitors have accounted for some of the largest dropoffs.<\/p>\n

Last month marked a yearly decline of 11% for UK tourists, who make up the country\u2019s third-largest share of foreign visitors. Holiday Extras, a UK-based travel company, has seen demand once held for Turkey redirected toward more affordable destinations, such as Slovenia, Montenegro and Tunisia.<\/p>\n

Turks have also begun to look elsewhere in increasing numbers. For years, many of those who could secure visas have found it cheaper to go abroad, including to neighboring Greece, than to holiday in their own country. The number of domestic holiday trips in 2025 contracted from the year before, according to the most recent data compiled by the state-run Turkish Statistical Institute \u2014 the first decline since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Although fewer foreign tourists are coming, they appear to be spending more, meaning the drop in arrivals hasn\u2019t yet affected Turkey\u2019s tourism revenue, which accounted for 4.1% of gross domestic product in 2025. The country also relies on tourism-driven FX inflows to support its external balance and stabilize the lira.<\/p>\n

For tourism investors, the real problem is not visitor numbers but maintaining margins under the pressure of rising costs and the exchange rate policy, said Emre Narin, vice-chairman of Marti Otel Isletmeleri AS, which operates properties in the Turkish Riviera.<\/p>\n

The Iran war breaking out \u201cat the peak early reservation period\u201d exacerbated difficulties, Narin added. \u201cThe season got off to a rocky start. Business started to pick up only in July.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent summers, Turkey became a go-to travel destination for UK-based Donna and Dave Needham, who took advantage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[257939,72,257938,113,61,60,257941,257942,257935,257944,257936,257937,257940,257943],"class_list":["post-608983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-affordable-travel-destinations","tag-business","tag-decline-in-turkey-tourism","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-turkey-exchange-rate-impact","tag-turkey-holiday-trends","tag-turkey-tourism-costs","tag-turkey-travel-alternatives","tag-turkey-travel-reputation","tag-turkey-vacation-expenses","tag-uk-tourists-in-turkey","tag-visiting-turkey-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}