Yesterday, I visited Alanya at the invitation of Alanya Chamber of Industry and Commerce.The population of Alanya, which is around 350,000, drastically increases every summer with tourists visiting from all around the world.
In addition to nearly 700 touristic facilities, short-term rentals contribute to the economy of the town, but construction and real estate are the two activities that keep Alanya’s economy vibrant at all times. There are nearly 10,000 registered vehicles, but the streets are full of vehicles with foreign license plates. After Putin’s call for partial mobilization, more people from Russia and Ukraine came here to start a new life.
The number of domestic and international flights in and out of Alanya airport is around 1800 per year and nearly 250,000 people have arrived at this town in 2021. There are two universities in Alanya, one public and one non-profit. Producing large volumes of bananas and avocados every year, the town has big potential in terms of further agricultural development. Alanya’s farmers want to cultivate other tropical fruits and vegetables as well. Trade activity in Alanya is quite developed, but export numbers are rather low. Apparently, local companies do not waste time with trade activities since they generate large foreign currency income from tourism.
According to the local business community, Alanya might soon become the new Miami with ever increasing construction and real estate market in the town. However, it is imperative Alanya has other sources of income as well to compensate for the loss of revenue from these two activities.Nevertheless, I can say that Alanya has a very strong infrastructure and superstructure compared to many other holiday destinations in Turkey.
Two Critical Races
Three candidates are racing in Alanya for Mayor and four for Chamber of Industry and Commerce. The whole town is covered with campaign posters and banners highlighting the candidates’ promises. Alanya, which is expected to be a province soon, can get ahead of many touristic regions with a fundamental change of vision.
Bilal Gömeç, one of the candidates, is considering cooperation between Technopark and University for the use of high technology in agriculture, trade, and industry.Furthermore, he promises digital incubation centres. Believing that innovative young people using drones and developing software will bring high added value to the agricultural sector, he plans to use more technology in farming to encourage more young people to work in this area.
I should say that my visit to Alanya has been most useful as it greatly helped me write my speech that I will deliver at the real estate summit organized by Real Estate Investors Association (GYODER) in Istanbul. Just as the Arabian Peninsula conducts research to explore the “Middle East economy after oil”, I think Turkey too should study alternative scenarios such as “Turkish economy after real estate boom”.
