Comparison of Air Transportation Systems of Turkey and Spain as the Competitors in Tourism Sector

The growth of air transportation in a country affects positively the development of other industries especially tourism. Turkey and Spain rank among the top countries in the world with their most developed air transportation and tourism sectors. In this study, the similarities and differences of air transportation systems of both countries and their dependency on tourism are examined. In this framework, the structure and the development process of Turkish and Spanish air transportation is revealed, then the future development trends of air passenger and air freight demands are estimated by using trend and regression analyses. Finally, the factors which may accelerate the development of air transportation and tourism sectors and the threats against the growth of these sectors are explored. The analysis results show that the tourism is crucial for the development of air transportation in both countries. 1 Address correspondence to Hakan Oktal (PhD), Anadolu University, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Eskişehir, TURKEY. E-mail: [email protected] Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Research (AHTR) An International Journal of Akdeniz University Tourism Faculty ISSN: 2147-9100 (Print), 2148-7316 (Online) Webpage: http://www.ahtrjournal.org/ 2017 Vol. 5 (2) 120-138 Article History Received 04 April 2017 Revised 23 June 2017 Revised 19 September 2017 Accepted 24 November 2017