More than half of Turkey’s adult population is unable to afford the cost of a one-week vacation away from home, Bloomberg HT reported on Monday, citing newly released data from Eurostat.
Eurostat on Monday said that 57.4 percent of Turks aged 16 and over were unable to afford a one-week annual holiday in 2024, ranking Turkey among the worst performers in Europe.
The EU average stood at 27 percent, down from 28.5 percent in 2023 and significantly lower than 37.6 percent a decade ago, in 2014. According to the figures, the lowest rates were reported in Luxembourg (8.9 percent), Sweden (11.6 percent) and the Netherlands (13 percent).
Turkey, which is not an EU member but is included in Eurostat’s broader monitoring, consistently ranked among the worst in Europe in terms of holiday affordability, along with several Balkan countries. In the latest figures published on Monday, only Romania reported a higher rate, at 58.6 percent.
In Turkey the burden weighs especially heavily on families with children and single mothers. In households with three children, 71.9 percent could not afford a holiday. Among single mothers with one child, the figure rose to a staggering 73.5 percent. While the overall rate for Turkey has improved slightly from 68.7 percent in 2014, the majority of Turks remain unable to take even the most basic form of annual rest.
These figures come against the backdrop of a deepening cost-of-living crisis that has severely eroded the spending power of Turkish households. Over the past several years Turkey has been suffering from a deteriorating economy, with high inflation and unemployment as well as a poor human rights record.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), annual inflation stood at 35.05 percent in June. However, the Inflation Research Group (ENAG), an independent group of economists, estimated the actual rate at 68.68 percent, almost double the official figure, fueling further skepticism over the government’s reporting of economic data.
The lira, which has been the worst performer in emerging markets for several years running due largely to economic and monetary policy concerns under the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has lost more than 75 percent of its value against the US dollar since 2021. It has continued its downward slide in recent weeks, breaching the symbolic threshold of 40 lira to the dollar.