The revenue-expense balance in tourism establishments in Turkey remains tense

In the assessment published in the bulletin of Turkey's Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers and Operators Association (AKTOB), September 2026 inflation figures were analyzed from the perspective of the tourism sector. According to the association's conclusion, although annual inflation fell to 29.73%, dropping below the 30% level, the fact that the increase in the exchange rate lags behind inflation still squeezes the balance between revenue and expenses in hotels and other tourism enterprises.

The essence of the matter is that the majority of tourism enterprises' revenues are generated in foreign currency, while a significant portion of their expenses is formed in the national currency. If inflation rises at a high pace while the exchange rate increase lags behind it, the same volume of foreign currency revenue covers fewer expenses compared to the previous year. AKTOB's assessment shows precisely that this difference puts pressure on the sector's financial indicators.

This indicates that although Turkey's overall tourism figures look good, profitability at the enterprise level is not improving at the same pace. In the hotel industry, where a large part of expenses consists of local costs such as energy, wages and food, such an exchange rate-inflation gap also complicates pricing policy: raising prices too much weakens the flow of foreign guests, while raising them too little fails to cover costs.

For Azerbaijan, this example is an indirect but clear signal. For Baku and regional hotels and guesthouses that host foreign guests, the fact that revenue is in foreign currency and expenses are in manat creates the same balance issue. Therefore, updating price and cost planning not only according to last year's figures, but by looking at how the exchange rate and domestic inflation have changed, is a more prudent approach.