Spatial Distribution of Occupancy Rate in the Hospitality Sector in Turkey According to International and Domestic Tourist Arrivals

Abstract

Besides resort tourism, Turkey has a huge potential of alternative tourism sources, such as health and thermal tourism, winter sports and mountain nature tourism, mountain tourism, rural and eco-tourism, congress and exhibition tourism, cruise and yacht tourism, golf tourism, and so forth. However, this potential can hardly said to be used effectively. For example, attractive and suitable alternative destinations, as well as routes for thermal, spring, winter and mountain sports, to be distributed in different regions throughout Turkey could not be constructed. In this study, we research occupancy rates in the hospitality sector for the period 2001–2013, by using spatial analysis techniques in order to demonstrate whether there is any spatial pattern of occupancy rates in Turkey. For this purpose, we calculated Moran’s I spatial autocorrelation coefficient for occupancy rates in the hospitality sector for both domestic and international tourists. The results show that, while there is spatial autocorrelation, taking accommodation of international tourists into account, spatial autocorrelation does not arise in terms of domestic tourist’s occupancy. Thus, domestic and international tourists’ spatial patterns are different in Turkey. This result can be interpreted as a preference of domestic tourists to visit relatives in Turkey, while international tourists prefer to stay in the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts along with Istanbul. Also, climate affects the occupancy rates. In other words, the length of the tourist season affects occupancy rates in the hospitality sector. Moreover, we also aim to detect spatial-dependencies among domestic and international tourists’ lines and local correlations using bivariate Moran’s I and LISA. The analyses show that coastal provinces that have HH autocorrelation are neighboring provinces that have a low degree of occupancy indicating that strong tourism routes and regional destinations have not yet been established. For this reason, such destinations should be bolstered with accommodation, culture, hand-crafts, and food and beverage facilities. Therefore, the results of this study may help Republic of Turkey’s Development Ministry to rearrange their integrated tourism planning approach.