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9.1.8 Tourism sector news
A total of 6.3mn foreign tourists visited Turkey in August, marking a 17.2% y/y increase, data from the Tourism Ministry showed on September 30.
Russians (1.08mn) and Germans (713,527) topped the visitors list, followed by the British (421,466).
The data also showed that some 300,000 Iranians visited the country in August, up from 190,000 a year ago.
In the first eight months of the year, Turkey attracted a little more than 31mn foreign tourists, which translates to a strong 14% increase on an annual basis.
Russians accounted for 15.6% of the visitors (4.8mn), followed by Germans at 10.9% (3.38mn), and UK citizens at 5.97% (1.85mn).
On a related note, The Hotel Association of Turkey said the hotel occupancy rate was 67.3% during the first eight months of 2019, up 1.2% from the same period last year.
The average daily rate for rooms and revenue per room rose 11.5% and 13.4%, respectively, reaching €79.60 ($88.40) and €53.60 ($59.50) in January-August.
For 2019, the government is targeting revenue generation of $29bn from tourism activities and a foreign tourist tally of 50mn.
In 2018, foreign tourist arrivals increased nearly 22% from the previous year to 39.45mn.
9.1.9 Utilities sector news
Turkey will need between $5.3bn and $7bn annually for the period between 2019 and 2030 to put the country’s energy industry on a more sustainable path, according to a report published by the SHURA Energy Transformation Centre.
As of June 2019, Turkey’s total installed electricity generation capacity reached 90.4 gigawatts (GW). Renewables accounted for slightly less than half of this total.
“While total energy demand increased by more than 90% from 2002 to 2018, both energy investments and energy imports have also increased to
81 TURKEY Country Report October 2019 www.intellinews.com