An evaluation about tourism prospects in 2022 and some major issues of the sector

According to the opinion of the tourism sector, thanks to the “Safe Tourism Certificate”, Turkey has survived 2021 without major injuries in tourism and has entered 2022 with hope. This success was achieved despite the great difficulties experienced by the sector during the pandemic. On the other hand, the sector has entered 2022 with the great advantage caused by the appreciation of the dollar against the lira. Experts believe the rise in foreign currency will contribute to increasing the number of foreign visitors. In fact some even think that a season close to the figures in 2019 could take place in 2022.

 Certainly at a time when we come across non-stop global surprises to affect our daily lives as well as businesses it might be safer to say “The season will most likely go well if there is no crisis caused by geopolitical, political and neighboring countries”

This being said it is forecasted that more tourists will come from EU countries and Russia in 2022 which will substantially contribute to Turkey’s tourism revenues, to start off with.

However, as expressed above balances can change around Turkey at any moment, as Turkey is a country with a very special geopolitical position. Therefore, if Turkey does not have a political and geopolitical problem, 2022 could be a year of serious improvement and hope for this country On the way to a successful performance in 2022, qualified personnel issue seems to be a big challenge for the country for reasons explained below.

ISSUE OF FINDING QUALIFIED PERSONNEL

Finding qualified staff is a big challenge because unluckily there are not many such prospective employees and those who possess good knowledge of foreign languages (English to be in the first place) and a good educational background with good manners etc do not prefer to work in this sector for wages the industry can afford to pay them. On top of this factors such as the long-hours of service required in the sector and high stress certainly have a negative impact on potential employees. All above imposes the necessity to work with lower quality personnel with less experience which in return downgrades the quality of service provided in facilities as well as other operations having to do with tourism.

At this point it should also be noted that the quality personnel employed in the sector earlier unfortunately left the industry after the pandemic started.  Actually they were forced to do so on grounds of the conditions brought about by the pandemic. Also, it seems that generation Z is not very much willing to work in the sector, either and the more so after the pandemic. Experts note that it doesn’t mean anything to offer a 12-month salary guarantee, service, lodging when the approach and relevance of generation Z to the sector is also almost non-existent. This seems to be a serious problem for the country. As long as the country don’t build very successful hotels and fill them with successful staff, it is not possible to talk about quality tourism. Therefore this issue needs to be urgently attended within the framework of a serious plan if Turkey wants to take its success in tourism one level higher.