Tourism in Kalkan , Turkey- the year to August 2016

Tourism in Kalkan – the year to August 2016
An Excellent Overview from our friends at Kalkan Turkish News, highlighting the plight of Turkish Tourism following various events of 2015 and 2016. Malvern World Travel have continued to support Turkey, and all of our clients have had Wonderful holidays in 2016. Lets hope that this wonderful Country continues to attract repeat guests and welcome New Guests in the very near future, especially to our favourite resort Kalkan.
A Report from KALKAN TURKISH LOCAL NEWS
With only a couple of months left of the main tourist season we thought we would take a look at how things have been this year in Turkey, and more specifically in Kalkan.
We have been talking to a number of business people and those who work in tourism, property owners who rent out villas and apartments, plus a few local bank managers to get their overview.
Before zooming in on Kalkan let’s take a look at Turkey as a whole.
Statistics – arrivals
According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture & Tourism’s figures up to June, it’s been bad. For the summer month of June only visitors were down by a massive 41%, from 4.1 million in June 2015 to 2.4 million in June 2016. For the six months to 30th June 2016 numbers were down by 28% on the same period last year – from 14.9 million to 10.7 million.
Looking at UK visitors only the numbers are also significantly down. For the six month period to 30th June 2016 Turkey had 693,000 British visitors compared to 950,000 in 2015 and 961,000 in 2014. That’s a drop of 27% on last year.
Below: Turkey Tourist Arrivals 1993 to 2016

Below: Turkey Tourist Arrivals 2015 to 2016

Charts source Trading Economics
International arrivals at airports
The statistics from Turkey’s international airports confirm the dismal picture. For the seven months to 31st July 2016 there were 39 million international arrivals, compared to 46 million for the same period in 2015. That’s a decrease of 15%.
Looking at the same period for airports close to us in Kalkan it’s even worse. In Antalya there were 5.7 million international arrivals compared to 11 million for the same 7 month period in 2015. A decrease of 48% – mostly down to fewer Russians visiting Turkey.
Meanwhile at Dalaman airport there were just 921,000 international arrivals in the year to 31st July 2016 compared to 1.6 million arrivals for the same period in 2015. That’s a massive decrease of 43%. Around 91% of Kalkan visitors arrive via Dalaman airport.
As an aside, we bring you a quick update on the subject of the rumoured plans for an airport near Kaş. Local reliable sources have told KTLN that these plans are very much on the back burner. Rumours of an airport near Kaş have been around for at least a decade, but it seems that nothing is going to happen in the near future.
Statistics – revenues
Income from tourism in Turkey fell to $4.98 billion in the three months to June 2016, from $7.73 billion in the same period last year – a year on year fall of 36%.
Below: Turkey Tourism Revenue 1990 to 2016

Below: Turkey Tourism Revenue 2015 to 2016

Charts source Trading Economics

Turkey overview
Statistically these tourism figures are the worst since the early 1990s. They reflect tensions with Russia and general concerns over security both within Turkey and in the region as a whole.
Nobody can deny that Turkey has suffered from significant problems this year, notably in the south east and in it’s larger cities. However it has been frustrating to see certain areas of the UK media shamelessly exaggerating the security problems, and in some cases publishing total lies – seemingly with no penalty from the Independent Press Standards Organisation. It is clear that selling more papers and attracting bigger TV audiences takes precedence over balanced reporting.
The view from Kalkan
The situation in Kalkan reflects the wider picture in Turkey. Depending on who you talk to the consensus is that business in Kalkan is down somewhere between 40% and 60%. There are fewer visitors and they are spending less.
Kalkan is of course heavily reliant on British tourists, unlike nearby Kaş where they have a more cosmopolitan customer base, including a significant number of Turkish visitors, and where they have had a relatively reasonable season. But as far as Kalkan is concerned it is clear that many British travellers have taken notice of the press and have decided to stay away.
Hotel occupancy rates are down significantly. Bookings with villas and apartments are also down, with some owners offering huge discounts in an attempt to attract customers. Countering these accommodation bargains have been some increases in air fares. Whilst you can still pick up the occasional cheap flight, a significant amount of flight capacity was switched from Turkey to other western Europe destinations, and unfortunately the rules of the market dictate that when supply is reduced prices rise.
Three tour companies operating in Kalkan have succumbed to the downturn this year: Elixir Holidays, Jewel in the Crown, and Anatolian Sky Holidays. These failures followed the demise of Exclusive Escapes back in 2015.
For those loyal Kalkan fans who saw through the scare stories and decided to come anyway, the exchange rate was not so good this year compared to 2015, which perhaps resulted in people being more careful with their holiday spending money. Historically speaking the exchange rate is still good though for British visitors.
Below: The streets in Kalkan have been too quiet.

Some variations
The businesses in Kalkan are not homogeneous. Some of the more established businesses can still claim to have done quite well this year despite fewer visitors, but they are very much in a minority. Most businesses have found it tough, and with income dropping markedly some businesses have had to lay off workers.
Every year there will be business failures – this is part of the normal business cycle, but this year more local businesses will have to rely on credit to cover the gap in cashflow and keep trading. Some local people have been quite philosophical about things saying that Kalkan has done well over recent years and that it is unrealistic to expect every year to be better than the last. They just hope that next year will see better times.
The reality of Kalkan in 2016
For those who ignored the UK press and decided to come anyway it’s been as good as ever.
The reality is that despite any concerns locals may have about their own businesses you will still find those familiar Kalkan faces smiling at you as you walk into town.
The reality is that we have had countless sun filled days, blue skies, sparkling seas and mouth watering meals, plus the occasional ice cold beverage.
The reality is that some of us have continued to venture into the amazing hinterland to enjoy the mountains, gorges, rivers, bays and beaches: places such as Patara, Saklıkent, Kekova, the Lycian Way, Xanthos and Islamlar. It’s all out there, still as wonderful as ever.
Here in our part of the Turquoise Coast, the reality is that we have had no terrorist attacks, no political problems, no migrant crisis, and according to the Jandarma commander there has been a significant reduction in the number of burglaries reported.

Promoting the reality
Business owners and countless Kalkan fans have done their best to promote the real Kalkan, as we have just described it, to try and offset the damaging headlines pushed by elements of the UK media.
Great use has been made of social media to promote Kalkan. Quite apart from business specific Facebook pages, a quick search identified no fewer than 40 Facebook pages promoting Kalkan in some way or other. There seems to be a new page every week! If you’re interested we have listed them at the end of this article.
Here at KTLN we try to report things in a balanced way. Yes we do promote Kalkan, (we make no apology for that), but equally in reporting local news we do tell you the good and bad. We think that’s the right thing to do. We have no vested interest in tourism ourselves (KTLN isn’t a business), but we would like to see our Turkish friends prosper and we love nothing more than seeing people discover Kalkan for the first time. So if you want people to know what Kalkan is really like feel free to point them to Malvern World Travel. Contact 01684 562406 and [email protected]
Related BBC News stories
Here are a couple of reports from BBC News looking at the challenges faced by the Turkish tourism industry this year.
A report from Mark Lowen from June 2016: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36549880
A report from Hannah Moore from September 2016: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37225144/the-number-of-british-people-visiting-turkey-drops-by-34-in-the-past-year