Report: Turkey has third-highest hotel-development activity in Mideast

A Top Hotel Projects report, released on Thursday, said there are 75 hotels planned or under construction in Turkey, putting the country in third place in the Middle East for hotel construction, behind only the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The research, developed for Hotel Show Dubai 2015, registered a 70 percent increase in Turkish companies interested in having exhibits at the 16th annual trade show, which takes place in September in Dubai.

More than 30 Turkish manufacturers will be represented at the event, including Elemegi Furniture & Design, Porland Porselen and Maya Tekstil, among others.

Turkey is the sixth most visited country n the world. In 2014, the country received 41 million tourists, and its manufacturing industry attracts a significant amount of international business travelers.

“Dubai, UAE and the entire Middle East are always target markets for Turkish companies for all industries," Engin Ertekin, the Dubai hotel show's Turkish representative, based in Istanbul, said. "There has been a continuous and significant increase in the last few years, in part due to the general economic stagnation in Europe, which is the No. 1 region for Turkey’s foreign trade. This is pushing Turkish exporters to focus more on the Middle East and also to find new markets.”