Our country is a tourism paradise with its priceless nature, rich history and culture. With these features, it is one of the important destinations of world tourism. Millions of tourists visit our country every year to experience these beauties. Tourism, which makes a significant contribution to the country's economy, requires a serious infrastructure investment and organization in addition to its benefits.

One of the most important pillars of this is accommodation. Our country has a strong accommodation capacity in terms of both quality and volume. However, we witness occupancy rates close to 0 in the seasons when tourism is high. Especially the high exchange rate leads property owners to evaluate their residences for tourism purposes. Although their houses remain empty during the low tourism season, the income they earn during the high season is much higher than the income they would earn from standard rental.
However, this situation has its handicaps because the income from such rentals is largely unrecorded and cannot be taxed. In addition, businesses with tourism authorization are obliged to submit the information of their guests to the relevant authorities for security purposes. However, this practice is not practiced in the rental of houses for tourism purposes. This brings security risks. In order to prevent these negativities, the Law Proposal on Renting Houses for Tourism Purposes was approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly's Planning and Budget Commission.

The regulation includes provisions on the general principles regarding the renting of dwellings for tourism purposes, the issuance of permission certificates, administrative sanctions and the legislation to which the dwellings rented for tourism purposes will be subject. Leases for more than 100 days at a time are excluded from the scope of the proposal.

According to the amendment made by the motion adopted by the Commission, in order to rent houses for tourism purposes, it will be mandatory to obtain a permit before concluding a rental agreement for tourism purposes. The permission certificate will be issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It will be ensured that the houses are documented and the income generated by renting will be recorded. The rental activities of high quality residences can also be carried out by a housing enterprise. In this case, the permit will be issued in the name of the company operating the housing business. The identity information of the people who will stay in these residences will be reported to law enforcement officers, as in hotels and hostels.

The regulation also sets out administrative sanctions for unauthorized rental activities and permit holders. Those who rent houses for tourism purposes without a permit will be imposed an administrative fine of 100 thousand Turkish Liras for each rented house and will be given 15 days to obtain a permit. If they do not obtain a permit within this period, a fine of 500 thousand Turkish Liras will be imposed and a 15-day period will be applied again. Those who continue their rental activities despite this will be fined 1 million Turkish Liras. A fine of 100 thousand Turkish Liras will also be imposed on those who rent out the house for tourism purposes.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism will have the authority to inspect rentals for tourism purposes, and if deemed necessary, it will also be able to use its inspection authority through the governorship. The Ministry will be authorized to resolve any hesitations and implementation problems that may arise during the implementation of the regulation, to make the necessary arrangements to ensure unity of implementation, and to determine the procedures and principles.

I wish that this regulation, which will play an important role in preventing informality in our tourism sector, will be beneficial for the tourism sector and our country.