Bodrum should impose tourist fee, says mayor

MUĞLA

Türkiye’s foremost tourism destination, Bodrum, should impose a levy on incoming visitors to reconcile the disproportion between service capacity and the surging seasonal population, its mayor has proposed.

“This is a practice embraced globally — why should we be the exception?” Mayor Tamer Mandalinci proposed at a press briefing, as quoted by daily Milliyet.

He underscored the fiscal strain faced by the municipality during the high season, when the town’s infrastructure is compelled to support a population several times its official census count.

Despite Bodrum’s official population standing at approximately 203,000, the figure rarely dips below 450,000, even in the off-season.

During peak summer months and public holidays, the town’s population can swell to over 1 million, placing extraordinary pressure on local services.

Mandalinci lamented that although Bodrum ranks among Türkiye’s most frequented locales, it continues to operate year-round under a static, predetermined municipal budget.

This mismatch severely hampers the municipality’s capacity to scale services in accordance with seasonal demands, he said.

Mandalinci suggested that even a small fee — such as a 3 euro charge per visitor, split equally between the Bodrum Municipality, Muğla Municipality and the Governor’s office — could generate substantial revenue to support much-needed local investments.

Tourism levies are prevalent in popular destinations across Europe. Most notably, Venice, one of Italy’s most frequented cities, currently imposes a 5 euros fee on day-trippers, a measure designed to offset the infrastructural and environmental toll of mass tourism.

A parallel proposal was floated last month by Ahmet Aras, the mayor of Muğla, the province that encompasses the Bodrum district.

“Provinces like Antalya, Muğla and Aydın are compelled to provide services to populations that, during the summer months, exceed their official numbers manyfold,” Aras stated.

“Our expenditures during the tourism season often exceed our revenues by a factor of three to five,” he added. “This is patently unsustainable. To redress this fiscal imbalance, we urgently need to explore alternative revenue models — such as municipal or tourism-specific taxation frameworks.”