Ramazan Aslan, Chairman of Aska Hotels, says some bookings cancelled during the Iran conflict are unlikely to return, while planned price increases for 2026 have effectively disappeared.
Speaking to Turizm Ekonomi, sister B2B travel portal of Türkiye Travel News, Aslan evaluated the latest developments in Antalya’s resort tourism market, including booking trends, pricing pressure and demand recovery following the geopolitical tensions triggered by the conflict involving Iran, the US and Israel.
Sharp slowdown followed by gradual recovery
According to Aslan, the war began at a time when tourism bookings were progressing strongly, but the sector immediately faced a significant decline in daily reservation flow.
“In the early days of the conflict, the contraction in bookings reached as high as 75 percent,” he said. “Today, we see that decline has eased to around 10 percent. People are gradually becoming more accustomed to geopolitical tensions. Initial reactions were much harsher, but daily booking volumes are now approaching last year’s levels.”
Aslan stated that, as of the first week of May, demand from Germany and wider Europe was down by around 15 percent, while the UK market saw a decline of approximately 10 percent.
Pricing pressure outweighs volume losses
Despite the improvement in booking activity, Aslan warned that pricing remains the industry’s main challenge.
“The numerical decline also created a major pricing impact,” he noted. “Not only did booking flow fall by 10–15 percent, but the planned 10 percent price increase could not be implemented. In short, the price increases expected during the transition from 2025 to 2026 have disappeared.”
He added that, even under the most optimistic scenario, hotels may only match last year’s revenue levels, with a risk of falling slightly below them.
“These bookings will not come back”
Aslan believes losses will continue as long as the conflict remains unresolved, although Türkiye could recover quickly once the situation stabilises.
He pointed to Spain as an example of a competing destination benefiting from the uncertainty.
“Spain is currently receiving more bookings than last year and, in some areas, has even stopped sales,” he said. “Many families, particularly in the UK, cancelled their Türkiye holidays because they feared they would not find availability in Spain later in the season or that prices there would rise further. Those cancelled bookings will not come back.”
Market shifts toward last-minute sales
According to Ramazan Aslan, Türkiye is currently operating largely on last-minute demand, with booking depth averaging around one month.
“When you move into a last-minute market, pricing becomes the key factor,” he said. “At that stage, hotels must closely monitor competitors and neighbouring destinations.”
At the same time, Aslan highlighted airline capacity as one of the sector’s biggest advantages this season.
“The positive side is that we do not currently face an aircraft capacity problem,” he explained. “There is no concern in the sector about being unable to secure flights for last-minute demand. There are some reports about reduced capacity and flight cancellations in the Russian market for May, but it is unclear how accurate they are.”
Support measures welcomed by the sector
Commenting on the Turkish government’s recently announced TRY 60 billion tourism loan support package and the reduction of accommodation tax from 2 percent to 1 percent, Aslan said the measures would provide some relief to investors.
“Any support package contributes to tourism and strengthens investors to some extent,” he stated. “Accommodation tax directly affects turnover and profitability, so we see the reduction as a positive step.”
However, he stressed that profitability remains the critical issue for the sector.
“What matters is not simply achieving occupancy, but under which conditions you achieve it,” Aslan said. “Tourism is a sector that generates foreign currency income for the country, and Türkiye must protect its market share without sacrificing sustainability.”
Aska Hotels adjusts supply strategy
Aslan also outlined how Aska Hotels adapted its operations to the current market conditions.
“We positioned ourselves as if the conflict would continue and took measures accordingly,” he said. “By analysing supply and demand within our group, we decided not to open one of our properties in order to balance capacity.”
He added that the group currently has no occupancy problems but aims to avoid aggressive last-minute price competition.
“Thanks to better supply-demand management, we expect to move forward with minimal losses,” Aslan concluded. “Our calculations indicate a maximum revenue decline of around 5 percent, and we have already prepared the groundwork for that scenario.”
