Double support will increase competition

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that they have extended the accommodation tax reduction, which started in May, and the employee support practices in tourism, which started in July. Speaking after the Cabinet Meeting, President Erdoğan extended the accommodation tax discount support, which will expire at the end of the year, to the end of 2027; He said that they decided to extend employee support until 2028.

Accordingly, the accommodation tax, which is applied at 2 percent, will be 1 percent until December 31, 2027. The 3,500 lira support provided for each insured working in facilities with a Ministry of Culture and Tourism Operation Certificate operating in the sector will continue until 2028.

'Demands are met'

The war in the region, which started after the attacks between Israel and the USA on Iran, put great pressure on the travel industry throughout the year. Türkiye, which stands out in tourism as the 'island of stability' in its region, continued to grow its tourism income despite these problems. Emphasizing the importance of listening to the demands of the sector and taking rapid steps towards support in this environment, Turkish Hoteliers Association (TÜROB) President Müberra Eresin stated that this will ensure the sustainable growth of tourism and maintain its competitiveness. Eresin said:

"At the end of a difficult year for the tourism sector due to wars in the world, global uncertainties and economic fluctuations, the fact that the accommodation tax that we specifically requested as a sector will continue to be applied at a rate of 1 percent until the end of 2027 and the decision to extend the employee support given to our facilities with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Operation Certificate until 2028 has been an extremely positive and hopeful development for us. On this occasion, our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and our Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Mehmet We would like to thank Nuri Ersoy, our Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Şimşek, and our Minister of Labor and Social Security, Prof. Dr. Vedat Işıkhan, for their support to our sector, their sensitivity and their constructive approach to our demands.

Revenues are breaking records

While sharing the 9-month tourism data of the year, President Erdoğan drew attention to the sector's contributions to the economy. Erdoğan said, "During the January-September 2026 period, we hosted a total of 49 million 132 thousand visitors in our country. We increased our tourism revenue by 2.4 percent compared to the same period of 2025, reaching 51 billion 278 million dollars. With this figure, we increased tourism revenues to the highest level in both quarterly and 9-month periods. In the same period, the average length of stay of visitors in our country was 10.34 nights per person. "The average nightly expenditure increased by 4.6 percent to 107.7 dollars, and the average nightly expenditure of foreign visitors per person approached 120 dollars," he said.