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Invest HatayInvest Hatayby Burç Consulting

Hotel Investment in Hatay: From Feasibility to Licensing

3/18/2026 · 8 min read

Boutique hotel interior (representative image)

Demand created by reconstruction and Hatay's longer-term tourism potential make hotel investment attractive on two different timelines at once. This guide covers the core steps of a hotel investment, from feasibility to licensing.

Location: City Center or Coast?

Central Antakya suits guests traveling for business and cultural tourism; the Samandağ coastline suits summer holiday stays better. Neither area has seen heavy investment from major hotel chains yet, which means both are still relatively early markets to position in.

What Should Feasibility Be Based On?

  • Current accommodation capacity and occupancy rates in the area
  • Building seasonality realistically into revenue projections
  • Comparing investment cost against expected payback period
  • Room count and service scope matched to your target guest profile

The Tourism Operation Certificate Process

Hotel operation requires a tourism operation certificate from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism or local authorities, which comes with technical standards on room size, fire safety and accessibility. If you're converting an existing building, factor the renovation cost of meeting these standards into your feasibility from the start.

Additional Post-Earthquake Considerations

For a hotel investment in the post-earthquake period, the building's (or planned new structure's) compliance with the current seismic code needs separate verification. This matters both for guest safety and for insurance and financing processes.

What Drives the Investment Cost

  • The land or building price (the difference between restoring a historic building and building from scratch)
  • Construction, restoration and interior fit-out costs
  • Furniture, equipment and technology investment
  • Permit, design and consulting expenses
  • Pre-opening working capital and staff costs

Tourism Certificates: Investment Certificate and Operation Certificate

Two separate certificates stand out for tourism facilities: the tourism investment certificate obtained during the investment stage and the tourism operation certificate obtained after the facility opens. Both are issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the required qualifications and application file vary with the type of facility, such as a boutique hotel, guesthouse or holiday village. The scope and current conditions of the certificates should be confirmed with the ministry before applying.

How to Prepare an Occupancy Projection

An occupancy estimate should consider seasonality and the target guest profile (cultural tourism, health tourism, business travel, coastal tourism) together. A sound feasibility study usually builds three scenarios, pessimistic, base and optimistic, and avoids basing revenue on the most optimistic year alone. Writing down the source of each assumption, such as regional statistics or observations of similar facilities, makes later revisions easier.

Conclusion

Hotel investment in Hatay offers a rare opportunity that combines today's concrete demand with tomorrow's tourism growth. Through our Tourism Investment Consulting service, we're with you from location to feasibility, licensing to operation.

From the official data

Tourism: Pre-Earthquake Baseline and the Development Agency's 2025 Records

According to the Hatay Provincial Tourism Strategy and Action Plan of the Eastern Mediterranean Development Agency (DOĞAKA), Hatay had 45 tourism-licensed accommodation facilities, 2,273 rooms and 4,602 beds in 2016 data. These figures describe the situation before the 2023 earthquake; current facility and bed numbers are not in these sources. The agency's 2025 activity report records current tourism projects (Antakya Gastronomy Market, Madenli Yacht Harbour, Hatay Surf Centre).

IndicatorValueYearSource
Tourism-licensed accommodation facilities452016[1]
Rooms · beds2,273 · 4,6022016[1]
Rooms · beds in Antakya (subtotal)754 · 1,5222016[1]
Tourism-licensed food-and-beverage facilities · travel agencies10 · 862016[1]
Average annual tourists (entries to licensed facilities)223,3042009–2015[1]
Average nights · average occupancy (DOĞAKA calculation)1.9 · 34.4%2009–2015[1]
Antakya Gastronomy Market: opened · daily visitors · businesses27.09.2024 · about 3,000 · 152024–2025[2]
Hatay Surf Centre (2025 CMDP): completion targetApril 20262025[2]

What does this data mean for an investor?

About 33% of the pre-earthquake capacity (1,522 beds) was in Antakya's centre. The present state of this capacity cannot be read from these sources; without the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's current licensed-facility data no accommodation supply figure can be given. By DOĞAKA's calculation, average occupancy in licensed facilities during 2009–2015 was 34.4% with 1.9 nights on average: pre-earthquake demand used only a small part of existing bed capacity. The agency read this as roughly two thirds of accommodation capacity going unused.

What it means for an investor: for a new hotel or boutique-lodging decision, the first question should not be “are beds missing?” but “where will occupied beds come from?”; low pre-earthquake occupancy shows the demand side (visitor numbers, length of stay) matters more than the structure. As current demand indicators, Hatay Airport passenger data (the air-traffic block on this page), new visitor-drawing sites such as the Gastronomy Market and the museum's reopening timetable should be followed together (interpretation).

Limitation: Accommodation and visitor figures refer to 2016 and 2009–2015; they rest on Hatay Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism data in the DOĞAKA plan and do not reflect the 2023 earthquake. The plan's “occupancy” is a rough ratio of annual tourist numbers to bed capacity, not true room occupancy. The plan's visitor and revenue projections for 2023 should be assumed not to have materialised and are not used as reference. The 2025 items are project statuses from the development agency's activity report; visitor numbers (Gastronomy Market) are the agency's statement.

Pages related to this data

Sources

  1. [1] DOĞAKA, Hatay Provincial Tourism Strategy and Action Plan 2018–2023 (pre-earthquake data) (data period: 2009–2016)
  2. [2] DOĞAKA, 2025 Activity Report (data period: 2025)

Hatay Airport: Passenger and Cargo Traffic

According to DHMİ data, Hatay Airport served 288,706 passengers in 2024 and 506,499 in 2025 (+75.4%). In the first eight months of 2026 (provisional data) passenger numbers reached 729,935, +237.3% on the 216,390 of the same period in 2025.

IndicatorValueYearSource
Passengers (domestic + international)288,7062024[1]
Passengers: total · domestic · international506,499 · 478,185 · 28,3142025[1]
Passengers, January–August216,3902025[1]
Passengers, January–August: total · domestic · international (provisional)729,935 · 634,067 · 95,8682026[1]
Aircraft movements2,509 → 3,9072024 → 2025[1]
Aircraft movements, January–August1,882 → 4,8322025 → 2026[1]
Load (baggage + cargo + mail, tonnes)2,701.5 → 5,082.72024 → 2025[1]
Of which cargo (tonnes)19.0 → 48.72024 → 2025[1]

What does this data mean for an investor?

Passengers in the first eight months of 2026 equal 144% of all of 2025: the airport passed the previous year's total in under a year. International passengers were zero at the end of August 2025, 5,245 by the end of September and 28,314 at year-end; in 2026 they reached 95,868 in eight months. The cumulative figures for July and August 2025 are identical (216,390): there are no recorded passengers in August 2025. DHMİ's table does not give the reason; the programme contains runway and apron repair items (TRY 16 billion, 2023–2026), but no causal link between the two is drawn here.

The load item (5,082.7 tonnes) combines baggage, cargo and mail; in 2025 only 48.7 tonnes of it were cargo (1.0%). The airport is thus passenger-driven today; for air-cargo investments (cold chain, e-commerce distribution) current volumes are very low and demand cannot be inferred from these data.

What it means for an investor: the rapid recovery in passenger numbers points to demand being rebuilt for tourism and business-travel services such as hotels, restaurants, car rental and transfers (interpretation). But the data do not say whether passengers are tourists, business travellers or visitors, or how many nights they stay; accommodation investments need a separate demand study.

Limitation: The 2026 figures are DHMİ's “provisional” data and may change. Passenger numbers count arrivals plus departures (one traveller counts twice). Purpose of visit, length of stay and spending are not in this source. No comparison with 2023 or earlier (pre-earthquake) is made here.

Pages related to this data

Sources

  1. [1] DHMİ (State Airports Authority), Airport Statistics: end-December 2025 and end-August 2026 (provisional) tables (data period: 2024–2026)
  2. [2] Hatay Governorship Provincial Planning and Coordination Directorate, Hatay 2026 Investment Programme (data period: 2026)

Cultural Heritage Restoration: Public Investment

In the 2026 Investment Programme, culture has the highest project count of any sector: 43 projects (TRY 10.8 billion). Phases 2 and 3 of the Hatay Museum repair (TRY 1.75 billion and TRY 2.50 billion) and the restoration of the Antakya Grand Mosque and Ahmediye Mosque are in the programme.

IndicatorValueYearSource
Hatay Museum repair, phase 2 (2024–2027; spent: TRY 871.4 million)TRY 1.75 billion2026[1]
Hatay Museum repair, phase 3 (2025–2028)TRY 2.50 billion2026[1]
Antakya Grand Mosque restoration (protocol)TRY 120 million2026[1]
Antakya Ahmediye Mosque restorationTRY 52.4 million2026[1]
Culture sector total43 · TRY 10.8 billion2026[1]

What does this data mean for an investor?

The museum's two phases together cost TRY 4.25 billion, which is 39% of the culture sector's value: a large share of the programme's cultural investment goes to a single museum, while the rest of the 43 projects are smaller restorations of mosques, a municipality building and other registered buildings.

What it means for an investor: the reopening timetable of the historic core (museum, grand mosque, bazaar surroundings) is the most concrete public indicator of the visitor potential for tourism investments such as boutique hotels, restaurants and experience centres. Visitor numbers, occupancy and accommodation supply are not in this source; without them no numerical claim about the size of demand can be made.

Limitation: The source covers public restoration investment only; for tourist numbers, accommodation facilities, beds and occupancy the Ministry of Culture and Tourism statistics should be checked separately. Completion years are programme projections.

Pages related to this data

Sources

  1. [1] Hatay Governorship Provincial Planning and Coordination Directorate, Hatay 2026 Investment Programme (data period: 2026)

Figures come from official sources; interpretations are Invest Hatay's own and are not investment advice.

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