Turkey's Islamist-leaning government risks putting off Western tourists

Telegraph

23-07-2025

A recent crackdown on booze-fuelled nightlife in the popular Turkish resort of Marmaris, and sensationalist reports that it has subsequently turned into a 'ghost town', have led to speculation that the country's conservative, Islamist-leaning government is reducing Turkey's appeal to Western tourists.
This is a worry not only for the tourists concerned, many of whom return to this beautiful country time and again (not least Britons, 4.43 million of whom came in 2024), but for everyone in Turkey employed by tourism.
Any significant drop in visitor numbers would be a major headache for the government too, with the industry accounting for 12 per cent of the country's GDP.
But before looking at the likelihood of Turkey turning into another Dubai, where drinking is strictly regulated for visitors and forbidden for Muslims, it's worth looking at what happened in Marmaris at the beginning of the summer.
Far from a curfew or slew of new, stricter rules on the closing times of bars and clubs, the local authorities simply started enforcing regulations which had been in existence over a decade. This means most bars must close at midnight, with a half-hour grace period. And the many premises on one 'zoned' street, Barlar Sokak (Street of the Bars), are permitted to stay open until 4am.
A primary motivation for the local municipality, led by mayor Acar Unlü, to clamp down on bars in the town is that many were flouting existing regulations. At least 28 establishments were temporarily closed for breaking the rules, though one premise that persisted in staying open beyond the statuary time has been permanently shut.
To find a raft of bars closed, and an increased police presence, when you're looking for a late-night beer in Marmaris, must have been annoying. But it's hardly evidence of a government plot to introduce ever-stricter rules around alcohol. Especially when you consider that both the municipality and the province of which it is a part are both strongholds of the staunchly secularist opposition CHP (Republican People's Party).
Another much-touted reason for the clampdown is public ire about the number of bars where shirtless male waiters danced on the tables. Turkey may be a polarised country, with a sometimes-unbridgeable chasm between the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) and the CHP, but Turks of nearly every stripe are united in their relative conservatism.
Fire-safety concerns also played their part in the 'crackdown', as part of the tabletop revelry often included sparklers and other fireworks as part of the impromptu 'show'. Both activities are now banned.
I talked to long-term residents involved in the tourism trade in the pretty resort of Kaş, Turkey's outdoor adventure capital, and the resort city of Antalya, both in Antalya province. They told me that, as in Marmaris, bars in Kaş close at midnight, clubs at 1am. In Antalya, many bars remain open until 2am, though live music is required to cease at 1am. There have been no recent clampdowns or curfews in either of these major tourist centres.
So what happened in Marmaris appears to have been an isolated event caused by specific circumstances. But there is little doubt that the current government, in power since 2002, have made Turkey harder for drinkers.
Laws introduced in 2013 forbade alcohol to be sold within 100 metres of a mosque or school, and off licences and markets could only sell alcohol between 6am and 10pm. Alcohol advertising on TV became unlawful in the same year, with authorities even enforcing the blurring of alcoholic beverages on TV and cinema screens.
Massive increases in the price of alcoholic beverages have crept in during the current government's reign too – up to 70 per cent of the retail price of many alcoholic drinks is now tax. Once considerably cheaper than the UK, a pint of beer in a cheap bar in Marmaris, Kaş or Antalya will now cost you around £4, but it's way more in more upmarket establishments. Hotel prices can be extremely high: £10 for a 33cl beer and £12 for a glass of wine are now common.
The number of Turkish tourists holidaying in long-time rival Greece rather than their own country made the news in 2024. This trend shows no sign of abating – Aegean Airlines opened a new, twice-weekly route between Istanbul and Santorini at the end of May.
One motivating factor for this exodus to Turkey's Aegean neighbour is that Greece is cheaper than Turkey for many things – including alcoholic drinks. A glass of wine in a modest Greek taverna is around £2.60; it's hard to find one for less than £5.50 in Turkey.
But despite government-led moves to restrict opening hours, 'zone' drinking establishments and increase the price of alcoholic drinks well beyond the rate of inflation, Turkey is highly unlikely to become another Dubai.
Although the number of Turks who admit to drinking is only 17 per cent, the true figures are probably much higher, and the government cannot afford to completely alienate too many of its own citizens. And tourism is far too valuable to the economy to risk putting off foreign visitors by introducing Dubai-style rules.
Yet it remains impossible to gauge how much tourism in Turkey will be affected long-term by the spiralling costs of alcoholic drinks, or concerns that Turkey is becoming a less liberal destination.
A friend who runs a travel agency in Antalya told me that, after a decent spring, numbers had dropped in June, and that Antalya's walled old quarter of Kaleiçi was quiet. She attributed the fall to the unrest in the wider Middle East, however.
Official figures also show signs of falling demand – in late June, Hürriyet Daily News published figures from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showing a 1.8 per cent year-on-year drop in foreign visitors for May 2025 over the preceding year, and a more modest 1 per cent overall drop in the first five months of 2025. Yet in the same five-month period, the number of Britons coming to Turkey actually rose by 1.3 per cent.
In recent decades, Turkey has weathered coups and wars, terrorist atrocities, hyper-inflation and many other setbacks. Yet tourism has grown exponentially. In 2003, 16.5 million tourists came to Turkey, by 2011 that had risen to 30 million, and 57 million tourists visited in 2024, making Turkey the fourth most visited country globally.
The Turks are far too resilient and resourceful to let slip the appeal of the country of which they are so proud to foreign visitors, especially when it is so vital to the economy.