Istanbul room prices double with Super Cup final game

ISTANBUL

The average room price in Istanbul hotels has doubled ahead of the Super Cup game between football squads of Liverpool and Chelsea on Aug. 14.

UEFA Champions League winners Liverpool will take on UEFA Europa League winners Chelsea in the first all-English UEFA Super Cup, which will take place at Istanbul’s Beşiktaş Park stadium on the European side of the Bosphorus on Aug 14.

The metropolis expects to host some 50,000 foreign visitors, mostly from the United Kingdom. The maximum capacity of the Beşiktaş Park is 42,000.

The average hotel room prices in hotels on the European side districts of Beşiktaş, Şişli, Beyoğlu and Fatih have almost doubled, hitting up to 10,000 Turkish Liras ($1,790) a night at luxury tourism facilities.

“When we look at the bookings between Aug. 13 and 15, we see that the occupancy rate across the province has increased to 80 percent. Last minute bookings are very usual during this kind of organizations,” said Müberra Eresin, newly-elected chair of the Hotel Association of Turkey (TÜROB).

“As the Eresin group, we have four hotels in the province and three of them are fully booked,” she added.

TÜROB Vice President Taner Yallagöz said that their four hotels in the historical neighborhood of Sirkeci, which houses the Topkapı Palace, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue (Sultanahmet) Mosque, have been serving with nearly full capacity.

Hilton Istanbul Bomonti announced that they expect to have no spare rooms on the day of the final game.

Sürmeli Hotel in Şişli has already reached 90 percent booking rate, according to a statement.

The Metropolitan Municipality has announced extra public transportation services from airports to the districts of Beşiktaş and Beyoğlu. Bus services will be free of charge for those who show a Super Cup game ticket.

Turkey hosted some 1 million British tourists in the first half of 2019 with an annual increase of 17 percent, according to Tourism Ministry data.