Why Turkey needs fewer tourists.

[Old Daffodil]

I have just read an article in the Hurriyet Daily News that says tourists do not spend enough money in Turkey. Apparently the country is just realising that if it wants tourists with more money they are going to have to up the game and provide more spas, golf courses and good quality hotels etc. Hallelujah!

[Scunner]

And when you see the volume of airport coaches running into and out of Belek with it's amazing hotels and World class golf courses, you see they are quite right  

[Eric]

Good quality hotels?  Golf courses?  Okay, 5-10 years and things will be happening:D

[Ovacikpeedoff]

We have been waiting nearly 8 years for the golf course in the Dalaman area to open. Even if they continue to work on it, the course will not open until 2011 at the earliest. We have heard all this talk about it opening next year and that is not possible. Two weeks ago I went and had a look. They are bedding some of the fairways. They have not attempted to lay one green. From my experiences in the UK where the golf club I belonged to replaced all the greens and it was 18 months before we were allowed to play on them. So it is going to be a minimum of 18 months before a course will open in Dalaman and probably longer if the Hilton wants to change 75 Euro to play one round of golf.

To build all of these courses is going to require a massive capital injection of around 4 million quid a course. In the present economic crisis you are not going to find many hotel chains willing to invest in Turkey.

[Old Daffodil]

I do not know if Seki will prove to have enough snowfall, but if it does and the area has some good hotels and facilities it could be the ideal area to start putting into practice some of what they are preaching.

[Highlander]

quote:Originally posted by Eric

Good quality hotels?  Golf courses?  Okay, 5-10 years and things will be happening:D

Eric - my MD went to Turkey for the first time 2 years ago on a golfing holiday and he said the standard of the golf courses was exceptional. He was also very impressed by the hotel

[Ovacikpeedoff]

As Scunner says the hotels and golf courses are all within 5 miles radius of each other in Belek.I have played some of the courses and they are as good as anything I played in Spain or Portugal. In Spain all the costas have their own set of golf courses and provide greater choice.

Building a load of golf courses and thinking they have created a cash cow is a fantasy in that there is a limited audience. Not many of your average golfers can afford to pay  up to 100 Euros to play a round of golf. In Spain and Portugal you have the tourist golfer but you also have a very large foreign community and this supplements the income of the courses by offering this community yearly membership for about 1500 Euros. This is something Turkey does not have.If you retired to the sun with the intention of playing golf most days then Turkey would not be yourfirst choice.

[jo b]

Our neighbour went to Belek three years on the trot and said the golf courses there were probably the best he had played on....better even than Florida.

This year he and his mates went to Tunisia because the prices had increased by £250 per person for the same week at the same hotel in Belek.

[hydeaway]

you are all right about the quality of golf courses in Turkey around the Belek area the best in the world they need the PGA tour to come to town if they want to charge the prices they do as spain and other countries are doing. A good quality pay and play is all we all want near Calis if only i had 4 million hanging around have the know how to run it just not the lira

[maximumtom]

Anyone living in Calis who is desperate for a round of golf could pop over to Rhodes. There is a course at Afandou ( on the East coast a few miles South of Faliraki) (www.afandougolfcourse.com). The rates look reasonable.  Those of you on the 90 day visa regime could make a day of it.