Investigation of the factors affecting the investment decisions of four and five star hotels in Istanbul in terms of supply-demand analysis

This thesis study was carried out to reveal how rational the investors are during their investment decisions. The sub-objectives of the study are to estimate the tourism demand for Istanbul, to determine which factors affect investment decisions and where the most preferred location site for hotel investments. In order to achieve these goals; the study is designed with the exploratory model, and both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. In the study, of which the sample is Istanbul, the secondary data was collected from tourism statistics, and the primary data was collected by face-to-face interviews with 22 hotel investors between November 2019 and May 2020. During the interviews, firstly the investors were asked four questions, and then a questionnaire was applied. Data obtained from surveys were used to determine the most preferred investment region by investors, the information obtained from the interviews were used to support the results of demand forecast and survey analysis. And for the demand forecast, Curve Fitting Method has been used. As a result of the research; it has been revealed that investors take into consideration the factors of the return time of the investment and the needs of the market mostly, when making an investment decision. On the other hand; legal factors, agglomeration conditions and economic factors were determined as the most important factors for hotel location site selection. As a result of the order of preferences of the investment regions; it was revealed that investors mostly prefer to invest in Beyoğlu-Beşiktaş-Şişli region. Then all these results were compared and evaluated, and suggestions for both academic researches and the industry were developed. Key Words: Agglomeration, Curve Fitting, Fuzzy TOPSIS, Hotel Investments, Istanbul, Location Site