Begüm Doğulu: Hedef Türk bayraklı yatları korumak
Begüm Doğulu, President of the Yacht Tourism Association, stated that the allegations that the Cabotage Law regarding the regulation made in the Tourism Incentive Law does not reflect the truth and said, "The purpose of this regulation is to protect Turkish flagged boats and at the same time to provide added value to the mega yacht tourism of our country. Our competitors Greece, Croatia and Italy have this practice. And it is our right to get a share of this cake. This application will increase our competitiveness against our competitors."
The discussions on the amendment to the Tourism Incentive Law, which was recently submitted to the Parliament, continue. Since 1982, the amendment to the Tourism Incentive Law No. 2634, which has been in force since 1982, has been claimed to be a breach of the Cabotage Law and to provide capitulation to foreign flagged yachts.
Begüm Doğulu, President of the Yacht Tourism Association, who is a person involved in this process in the Ministry of Tourism, stated that the issue was misrepresented and emphasised that this was not a new law, but only new regulations were made in the existing law. Underlining that the Yacht Tourism Regulation, Tourism Incentive Law No. 2634 was enacted by the decision of the Council of Ministers on 08/06/1983 and published in the Official Gazette on 04/08/1983 and has been in force since then, Doğulu stated that within the scope of this law, previously, foreign flagged commercial boats of all sizes were given licences by the Ministry to carry out commercial activities in cabotage, but with this new application, it is currently only given to mega yachts of 39 metres and above, which have no equivalent in Turkey. Pointing out that no Turkish flagged commercial yacht over 39 metres was detected in the statistics of the Ministry, Doğulu said that for this reason, the law covers only foreign flagged mega yachts.
Each mega yacht leaves 200 thousand Euros in 1 week
Underlining that the Ministry has protected Turkish flagged boats with this practice, Doğulu said, "They did not allow foreign flagged boats that are equivalent to our fleet. Hundreds of mega yachts visit our country every year. In Greece, where we are in competition with us, the charter licence application has emerged. The European Union takes boats that are not flagged for a fee. Croatia and Italy do too. Under these conditions, we should not tell mega yachts not to come. Because each mega yacht leaves an average of 200 thousand Euros a week to the country. And we do not have the equivalent of these mega yachts. Besides, we already had this law. Claims that a new decision has been taken to pierce the Cabotage Law are not true. On the contrary, in order to protect Turkish flagged boats, yachts below 39 metres are not allowed, only yachts of 40 metres and above are allowed because there are no equivalents in Turkey."
Mega yachts will provide very serious added value
Stating that it is a serious loss for the country that Turkey does not have the application made to Mega Yachts abroad, Doğulu said, "While all the countries we compete with in the Mediterranean basin give charter licences to foreign flagged boats in order to preserve Mega Yachts, our exclusion from this application would not only leave us behind in yachting, it would be to reject the foreign currency that leaves our country an average of 200,000 Euros a week and 300 mega yachts a year. Apart from these expenses, a fee of 300-400 thousand liras will be charged for each mega yacht. In addition, unfortunately, many mega yachts have been coming to our country until today, taking transit fuel and going directly abroad, going to Greece and Croatia with fuel oil, which is not profitable for our state, and making their charters there with tax-free diesel fuel they bought from our country and spending all the foreign currency in the countries they went to, Now, when these yachts work internally in our country, they will buy national fuel because they do not have the opportunity to buy transit fuel, and if we foresee that an average of 20/30 million litres of national fuel will be sold, if we take into account the VAT and SCT that our country will obtain from here, indirectly very serious income is in question. Otherwise, a mega yacht that started charter from Kos Island docked at Bodrum harbour and bought transit duty-free fuel. He was spending money in Greek waters and burning the fuel he bought with the tax that our state did not take. How can we be comfortable with this? He will take his rations. He will wait in marinas. It will bring a very serious added value to our country. Also, the customers coming with these 140-150 metre boats are the richest customers in the world. And these are reflected in the press. It is a natural advertisement for our country. This is a way for us to tell the world how high quality our tourism is."
A new regulation in the existing law
Doğulu reiterated that the discussions that the Cabotage Law is being violated do not reflect the truth and said; "The only purpose here is to protect Turkish flagged boats and at the same time to provide added value to our country. Greece, Croatia and Italy have this practice. What should we do, should we tell foreign flagged boats not to come? Should we not get a share from this cake? This application is a very serious reform that increases our competitiveness against our competitors. It is an arrangement that will not harm our country and our sector stakeholders, but on the contrary, it is an extremely beneficial arrangement. The work of these yachts in our country will increase the turnover of our yacht harbours exponentially, will contribute to all stakeholders of the sector from the provisioning companies and will lead to an increase in sectoral employment. A new law was not created to pierce the cabotage."