The effects of the real estate sales to foreigners on tourism: Yalova sample

The acquisition of houses by foreigners may have some effects on tourism sector. The aim of this research is to identify these effects in Yalova province and to provide complementary suggestions about legal arrangements. Yalova, one of the major tourism destinations in the south of the Marmara Region, was selected as the study area. Despite being one of Turkey's smallest provinces in terms of surface area and population, it is in the 6th place among the provinces with the highest house sales to foreigners between the years 2013-2016, and when the sales to foreigners are compared to the total sales in the city between the years 2014-2016, it will clearly be seen that Yalova is the first among 81 cities, which makes Yalova a good example to examine in terms of the effects of foreigners' acquisition of residences. In this research, the existing literature was firstly scanned, and business owners operating in the accommodation sector were profoundly interviewed, and a semi-structured interview form was prepared in the light of obtained findings. The data obtained from 10 people who are the owners/directors of accommodation industry were subjected to descriptive and content analysis. As a result of the analysis; it was concluded that acquisition of houses by foreigners in Yalova has economically more negative effects than positive ones on accommodation industry, and that the economic contribution of acquisitions are limited to construction and real estate sectors, and that tourism sector generally does not have much benefit from these contributions, and that even though negative consequences in respect to socio-cultural aspects have not appeared yet, negative impacts of this issue on environment have come to a noticeable level. Moreover, nearly all participants in the research have stated that many of the houses bought by the foreigners are illegally accommodated by foreign tourists, and added that house acquisition by the foreigners should be limited or/and strictly be supervised in this province.