The İstanbul Park course will be host to Formula One fans on May 28-30. In previous years, finding an empty hotel room during the Grand Prix was almost impossible, but this doesn’t seem to be the case this year. Imur Bayındır, the president of the Touristic Hotels and Investors Association (TUROB), told the Anatolia news agency that the cachet of Formula One racing in Turkey is fading gradually. Even the hotels in the Asian part of İstanbul, which will host the races, will likely have vacancies during the Grand Prix, he stated.Although the association doesn’t have whole-sector figures yet, Bayındır said the figures sent in by some hotels so far have demonstrated that demand has been floating at low levels.
For Bayındır, the teams that have withdrawn from the races were a major reason behind this ebbing demand.
The TUROB head said Formula One will contribute to the promotion of Turkey’s image abroad and will bring in revenues for companies in the tourism sector, but that this is not enough.
İstanbul Park General Manager Bülent Özerdim refutes claims of a drop-off in demand, pointing out that ticket sales for the Turkish Grand Prix have already surpassed sales figures from the last two years and are continuing to sell apace.
Özerdim, who has successfully overseen the past five Turkish Grands Prix, said preparations are continuing without any significant problems. “We are expecting 100,000 Formula One fans to watch the race this year. This is already higher than the number of spectators in both 2008 and 2009,” he explained.
Demand fell for the race last year because of the global economic crisis, but sales have rapidly recovered that ground this year, Özerdim stated.
