A line that cuts like a knife

I stumbled upon a scene in the 2016 award-winning French film Divines. In a scene where a young, rebellious girl living in difficult conditions in a poor neighborhood is arguing with her teacher—who is trying to teach her a trade and improve her circumstances—the teacher, after criticizing her clothes and making a series of demeaning remarks to highlight her poverty and belittle her, says:

“You can only spend your vacation in Turkey on an all-inclusive package.”

Ouch… Look at the sharpness of that sentence, it cuts right to the bone! It’s not just a sentence; it’s a knife!

Our country is surrounded by seas on three sides, rich in forests, and its history attracts the attention of the whole world; it is so archaeologically rich that our current resources are not enough to uncover most of it. Historical artifacts smuggled out of our country are being exhibited in the museums of other nations.

We must realize that Turkey is not an easy country geopolitically, but no matter what happens, no one, including foreign investors, can give up on Turkey and its potential.

The sea is clean, the cuisine is rich, the coastlines are endless, and when it comes to service, no one can hold a candle to us. Why do we admire everything in the countries we visit—for example, Greece, Italy, or Spain—which are not very far from us and have similar features? Even though they are many times more expensive than us, how do they sell these services at high prices while we cannot? Are their coastlines more beautiful than ours? Isn't the sea the same sea?

Because they don't have as much space as we do. They don't build structures on every plot of land they find like we do. Everything is under control, decisions are not constantly changed according to personal interests, and they don't try to destroy the old to build the new just to profit from it.

There is no construction permit. There is no permission for buildings that will spoil the view. The texture is always the same.

Imagine the view of the old Bodrum from a distance; would it have been any less than today's Mykonos or Santorini if nothing had been allowed except for pure white houses with blue-painted frames? Was it so hard to say: all houses will be white, the materials will be such and such, balconies will not be enclosed, you will not encroach on the streets, they will not be covered with plastic, and signs will be of a certain size and under certain conditions?

In those places, there is no room for the "sharp-witted" who say, "Let me enclose the balcony with PVC, let me spill out into the street a bit, let me close that area off to create a smoking section." There is a consciousness among shopkeepers who compete with each other to be better, acting only with the concern of how they can make their space more aesthetic, without spoiling the texture or doing anything without permission.

Are they smarter than us? No, they are just more conscious than us.

Architecture, aesthetic taste, and legal procedures have all been the same for years. They don't go to the municipality like we do, slip money into someone's pocket, and say, "Hey, my cousin has a 27-square-meter spot, can we close the front and turn it into a hookah lounge?"

When I was a student in Barcelona in 2003, the streets I walked through with admiration, the buildings I couldn't get enough of looking at, and even the long-established restaurants—in short, everything was the same when I went last year. It was so much the same that I immediately noticed the newly built Mandarin Residence.

Can you say such a sentence for any street in Turkey today?

All the bays are full of hotels, massive buildings; a huge number of rooms, and construction permits given to new places every day—as you can see, abundance lowers prices.

To give an example, while a well-known hotel chain recognized all over the world can easily sell its rooms for 1000 Euros in high season, we drop to 600 Euros in Bodrum to fill the same chain's hotel in high season, but we still can't fill it. A smart tourist won't choose that hotel when they can stay in all-inclusive hotels and have a vacation for pennies.

Of course, with these prices, the tourist gets a cheap vacation, but the Turkish people can only watch from afar. While this is an extreme example, let's go to Antalya.

You know the all-inclusive facilities in that region.

We are talking about a system where tourists, especially Germans, stayed comfortably for months during the Covid period, enjoying the air, water, and sea, eating whatever they wanted from the rich cuisine, and paying very meager amounts—a system cheaper than even renting a house.

A cultureless system where a tourist could come from their country with 100 euros in their pocket and perhaps return without spending it, without stepping a foot outside the hotel, without eating a doner kebab, without buying a bottle of water, going from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the airport!

Yet, if Turkey could change its marketing strategy, move away from the all-inclusive system, and aim for a high-quality guest profile with a high income level, it could easily be the number 1 destination in the Mediterranean.

If it realized that it is in a very privileged position with its flashy structures equipped with the latest technology, the quality of food and beverage it offers, and most importantly, its human structure suitable for the service sector... If it realized that it is far ahead of its other competitors in the Mediterranean in terms of geographical features, climate structure, seasonal length, and most importantly, sea water temperature...

The important issue here is how we package our product. If we can manage this PR, the product we have is very strong.

Investors and business owners must have a common consciousness regarding high-spending guests, high value-added marketing, and facility development, rather than a high number of guests.

Turkey, which has one of the most important geopolitical locations in the world, is of course not limited to just sea tourism. It contains many alternatives in terms of types of tourism. It is possible to say that the types of tourism we are talking about can be formed according to people's interests, travel purposes, budgets, and many other factors.

Winter tourism, faith tourism, highland tourism, agricultural tourism, congress and fair tourism, sports tourism, yacht tourism, cave tourism, underwater diving tourism, air sports tourism, health tourism, thermal tourism, golf, river rafting tourism, bird watching tourism, enotourism... a source that never ends...

So how did we fall into this state where the country's tourism image has become the subject of films?

When I enrolled in my school's tourism and hotel management department in 1996, my dreams were very different from the tourism landscape I see today... I did not work in this field because my disappointments quickly consumed my passion for the sector.

Those who continued have become important names in the sector today. I hope they contribute to the change. I think it's not too late for anything...

I heard a rumor that they opened Gökova to construction; I hope that is not true either.

Stay well...