and Tourism established in 1957 into the specialized Ministry of Tourism and Information in 1963 via institutional restructurings aimed at integrating legislative strategies with comprehensive Five-Year Development Plans (Beş Yıllık Kalkınma Planları).6 A significant development occurred with the enactment of the Tourism Encouragement Law No. 2634 in 1982, which serves as the bedrock of modern Turkish tourism infrastructure law. Law No. 2634 replaced the outdated and restrictive provisions of the Tourism Industry Encouragement Law No. 6086 of 1953 by introducing legal incentives designed to attract domestic and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).7 The primary regulatory mechanisms introduced by Law No. 2634 included the allocation of public immovable properties within designated Culture and Tourism Protection and Development Regions (Kültür ve Turizm Koruma ve Gelişim Bölgeleri) to private investors for long-term leasehold periods, alongside substantial tax exemptions, customs duty waivers, and subsidized utility tariffs for certified tourism investments.8 This statute catalyzed the transition from localized hospitality businesses to a mass tourism industry.9 In tandem with these commercial advancements, the legal relationships between tourism actors underwent a significant transformation driven by the EU accession process and the modernization of consumer law. Historically, the Travel Agencies and the Association of Travel Agencies Law No. 1618 of 1972 had focused primarily on the administrative licensing and operational boundaries of travel agencies, offering negligible protections for the traveler as the weaker contract party.10 However, the harmonization requirements of the EU acquis necessitated a fundamental shift from investor-centric legislation to comprehensive consumer protection. This regulatory realignment manifested in the modernization of general contract provisions and specific consumer statutes. The integration of EU consumer standards was initially realized through amendments to the repealed Consumer Protection Law No. 4077, and 6 Yusuf Ormankıran, Ali Turan Bayram, & Ercan Karaçar, “Turizm Bakanları Üzerine Bir İnceleme”, Turizm Akademik Dergisi, 2 (2015): 4 7 İsmail Bilgiçli & Burhanettin Zengin, “Evaluation of Tourism Establishments in Terms of Tourism Incentive Law”, Uluslararası Hakemli Beşeri ve Akademik Bilimler Dergisi, 19 (2017): 2 8 Hasan Nerad, “Taşınmazların Turizm Amaçlı Kullanımı”, İdare Hukuku ve İlimleri Dergisi, 12 (1995): 289 9 Ayşe Okuyucu, “Tourism Development in Turkey: Development Process, Challenges and Patterns”, The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies, 6/7 (2013): 818 10 Efe Dündar, “Kırsal Turizm Açısından Turizm Hukukundaki Yaptırımlar”, International Rural Tourism and Development Journal, 2 (2018): 2 4 ENES ALTAN
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==