Tourism

Doğuş Tourism Group consists of 8 facilities, including 4 five-star hotels, 1 four-star hotel, 1 first class holiday village and 1 five-star holiday village as well as the Arena Giyim clothing company. The Arena Giyim company is the creator of the In-formal brand name, and which also has contracts with world renowned luxury brands such as Emporio Armani, Armani Caffe, Gucci and Loro Piana.

Doğuş Tourism Group's hotel facilities include the Park Hyatt Istanbul Maçka Palas, Hyatt Regency Istanbul, MARITIM Hotel Club Alantur - Alanya, MARITIM Hotel Grand Azur - Marmaris, Sheraton Voyager Antalya Hotel Resort & Spa, Paradise Side Beach Hotel and Aldiana Side.

The Group secures its high levels of international service quality through global cooperation with Emporio Armani, Gucci and Loro Piana in the fashion industry, and with Hyatt International (Europe Africa and Middle East) LLC, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Worldwide Inc, HMS International Hotel GmbH (MARITIM) and Aldiana GmbH, in the tourism sector.

2008: A year of success

Turkey's tourism sector has undergone an accelerated rate of growth in the past 3 decades and ranks among the 10 leading, most popular tourism destinations in the world.

The current world recession negatively affected the tourism sector especially in the second half of 2008. Despite the general slowdown, a few destinations around the world, including Turkey, showed positive results in 2008. Turkey received more than 26 million international tourist arrivals, which represented a growth of approximately 13%. Tourism receipts reached USD 21.9 billion, marking an increase of 19% with respect to the 2007. However, "tourism spending per person" rose by 4.3% compared to the previous year, to USD 708. Istanbul had one of the fastest "revPAR" growth rates in Europe, up 23.5% to USD 159.

New initiatives

Strictly adhering to its growth-oriented philosophy, Doğuş Tourism Group has maintained its continuing renovations of existing tourist establishments and its development-focused investments within the scope of 2008 targets.

Following its strategic development plans and in addition to its Didim and Dalaman Marina projects, Doğuş Tourism Group continues its initiatives in the tourism sector. These initiatives include the Park Hyatt Istanbul Maçka Palas Project, which is converting one of the historic landmarks in Istanbul into a 90-room boutique hotel.

Didim Marina will be opened in May 2009 with 625 berthing and 600 dry park capacities. Another major marina project is the Dalaman Marina Project, with a capacity of 1,300 yachts, and the investment is scheduled to start in 2009.

Highlights from 2008

The second phase of the MARITIM Hotel Club Alantur renovation has been completed and the Hotel will present an array of new facilities to its guests. A Hotel Rating agency, TopHotels.ru, provides an informative rating of hotels which is based on the opinions of the specialists of tourist business and the opinions of the tourists. TopHotels.ru has rated the MARITIM Hotel Club Alantur as 23rd of the TOP-100 Best Hotels of the World and the 10th of the TOP-10 of the Best Hotels by Country. MARITIM Hotel Club Alantur has also been awarded with the HolidayCheck-Award 2008, which placed the Hotel among the 99 most popular hotels worldwide.

In addition, the renovation of the Sheraton Voyager Hotel Resort & Spa continues. The world's leading online travel provider, Expedia, awarded the Sheraton Voyager Hotel Resort & Spa as "Top Producer for Room Nights in 2008". Furthermore, Thomas Cook awarded the hotel with Travelife Silver Award - For Sustainable & Environmentally Aware Hotels.

In line with the concept of providing a high standard of service, Doğuş Tourism Group has also continued to renovate the MARITIM Hotel Grand Azur.

Paradise Side Beach Hotel has won Primo 2008 award, ranking the hotel among the top 10 hotels of Neckerman's 5000 hotels worldwide. The Internet platform for independent reviews and unbiased opinions concerning travel and vacation, HolidayCheck, awarded the hotel with Gastronomy Award placing Paradise Side Beach Hotel as the best 5 of all checked hotels in the category Gastronomy.

The expert for club holidays, www.cluburlaub.de, undertakes a customer survey every year and ranked Aldiana Side as the 5th Best Club Worldwide on cluburlaub.de

Each year, Travel+Leisure, the famous US travel magazine that reaches 1.5 million people, conducts a survey among its readers of the best cities and hotels in the world. In 2007, this survey, which is considered the most up-to-date guide for today's trendy travellers, ranked Hyatt Regency Istanbul among "The Best 500 Hotels in the World".

Meanwhile in November 2008, Doğuş Tourism Group opened its 7th hotel property, Park Hyatt Istanbul Maçka Palas as a boutique luxury hotel. Located in the chic Nisantasi residential and shopping district, Park Hyatt Istanbul Maçka Palas is housed in a restored art deco palace, originally built in 1922.

As a sign of quality in the area of Marinas, the D-Marin received the "The Best Marina in Turkey" award by SKAL in 2007.

The outlook

In line with Doğuş Group's strategies, Doğuş Tourism Group sets its future strategy to become a regional leader and to expand even further. Doğuş Tourism Group will continue to reflect its growth-oriented investment philosophy to its financial results and operations in coming years as well.