An analytical review for foreign entrepreneurs, investors and companies that operate in Türkiye or are considering entering the Turkish market.

Doing business in Türkiye in the last quarter of 2026 means dealing with several changes at once. The state is tightening requirements for foreign digital platforms, the stock market is highly volatile, and the technology sector keeps developing. Political events have also drawn attention again to relations between central government and local administrations.

These developments matter to foreign companies in different ways. Some directly affect the cost and legal model of doing business. Others change financing conditions, the competitive landscape and the outlook for specific industries.

The regulation of international accommodation booking services deserves particular attention. The proposed requirements for Booking.com and Airbnb show how important local presence is becoming for foreign digital companies.

It would be wrong, however, to judge the whole Turkish economy by one bill or a few trading sessions. Below we look at each change separately and at the practical questions it raises for foreign business.

In brief

• A bill on foreign accommodation platforms cleared a parliamentary committee: a two-year permit for 5 million lira, a representative in Türkiye, commission capped at 17%. Expected to take effect on 1 January 2027.
• The BIST 100 lost 2.03% on 7 October and 14.34% over the month, while staying 7.65% up since the start of the year. FTSE Russell kept Türkiye’s Advanced Emerging Market status.
• Payouts were announced for 43,643 investors in 17 funds in liquidation; completing the process may take five to six months.
• ASELSAN signed new export agreements worth $157.9 million.
• Tourism revenue for the first half of the year was about $25.75 billion, with visitor numbers down 2.7%.

1. New rules for Booking.com and Airbnb: foreign platforms will have to rethink their operating model

One of the most significant events of early October was a parliamentary committee’s approval of a bill on foreign digital accommodation platforms.

The bill affects Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and other international services that offer booking in the Turkish market.

Under the bill, foreign platforms will need a permit from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It will cost 5 million lira and be valid for two years, with the fee adjusted annually by the official revaluation rate.

Companies will also have to appoint a representative in Türkiye, provide an address for official notices, comply with digital taxation requirements and supply information to state authorities.

A separate provision concerns commissions. For bookings of services inside Türkiye, a platform’s commission may not exceed 17% of the price of the service excluding taxes.

The bill also provides for a tourism levy of 0.075% of the relevant tax base. Breaches may lead to fines, cancellation of the permit and blocking of access to the platform.

If the bill is finally adopted, it is expected to take effect on 1 January 2027. Existing platforms are expected to get three months to apply.

Why this matters for foreign business

This is not only about extra costs for Booking.com or Airbnb. The bill touches the very principle of how foreign digital intermediaries deal with the Turkish market.

An international company can serve Turkish customers through a foreign legal entity without an office in the country. That model does not necessarily exempt it from local regulatory obligations.

For booking platforms, the Turkish authorities propose a specific responsible representative, financial requirements and mechanisms of state oversight.

The new rules should not be automatically extended to all foreign digital business. The bill covers a specific category of travel platforms. Still, companies in other regulated industries would do well to keep this example in mind when estimating the cost of market entry.

How the position of Turkish hotels will change

Two provisions matter most for the hotel business.

The first is the commission cap. If a hotel currently pays a platform more than 17% on the relevant domestic bookings, the law could change the economics of that sales channel.

The second is the limits on contract terms. Platforms would be barred from preventing hotels from selling through alternative channels at the same or different prices. They also could not, without objective grounds, lower a property’s position in search results or force it to take part in promotions.

This potentially gives hotels more room to develop their own websites, direct booking and independent advertising campaigns.

There is a flip side. If international platforms face extra costs, they may revise their commercial terms, marketing budgets or range of services.

The final effect of the reform on accommodation prices and hotel profitability therefore cannot yet be assessed.

What companies should do

Foreign travel platforms need to check whether the bill applies to their business model and prepare a preliminary estimate of the costs of the permit, taxation and local representation.

Hotels and management companies should analyse their dependence on international aggregators, their commission structure and the scope for increasing direct sales.

This is especially relevant for small independent hotels without large marketing budgets of their own.

2. The Turkish stock market: high volatility, international status unchanged

Early October has brought noticeable swings on Borsa İstanbul.

According to the market digest for 7 October, the BIST 100 index closed at 12,123 points, down 2.03%. Turnover was 113.5 billion lira.

This combination points to substantial short-term swings in the market.

For foreign investors, what matters is not only the scale of the decline but also the differences between sectors. The insurance sector rose, for example, while the industrial and financial indices fell.

Judging the Turkish stock market by the BIST 100 alone is therefore not enough. Sector differences can be significant.

FTSE Russell kept Türkiye’s classification

Against this volatile backdrop, international index provider FTSE Russell confirmed Türkiye’s status as an Advanced Emerging Market. The country was not placed on the Watch List for a possible reclassification.

At the same time, FTSE Russell continues to discuss with Borsa İstanbul and the Capital Markets Board (SPK) how to improve data on free float.

Why does this matter? International asset managers use the FTSE Russell classification when building investment strategies and index portfolios.

Keeping the status means Türkiye’s category did not change in this review. It does not guarantee new capital inflows and does not remove market risks.

What foreign investors should watch

In volatile conditions it is especially important to separate three factors: the results of specific companies, the overall direction of the Turkish market, and exchange rate movements.

An investor who measures returns in dollars or euros may get a result very different from the return in Turkish lira.

For companies planning to acquire Turkish assets, this also means looking beyond current market valuations to the cost of financing, currency obligations and the resilience of cash flows.

3. Türkiye’s financial sector: investigations into investment funds and investor protection

Another major topic in October is the situation around a number of Turkish investment funds.

The authorities announced payouts to 43,643 investors whose money was held in 17 funds linked to A1 Portföy, Bulls Portföy and Pardus Portföy.

According to Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, payments under ordinary liquidation were due to begin on 8 October. Completing the process may take five to six months.

A special legislative mechanism is also under discussion. If the relevant law is adopted, it would allow repayment of principal of up to 1 million lira to begin.

On 7 October President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the state was investigating irregularities in part of the investment fund market and intended to seek the return of investors’ money.

Background: Borsa İstanbul fund crisis: what happened in Türkiye and what it means for investors.

Why this matters for business

For foreign companies and private investors, the events around the funds raise the question of financial oversight and counterparty checks.

When choosing an investment product, it is not enough to look at the stated return or the reputation of the management company. You need to understand the fund’s structure, the composition of its assets, its valuation rules, exit conditions and investor protection mechanisms.

This is especially important for foreign entrepreneurs who place the temporarily free cash of their Turkish companies in local financial instruments. Liquidity, the currency of the investment and the possible dependence of asset values on related parties should each be assessed separately.

The problems of individual funds should not be automatically treated as a description of Türkiye’s entire financial sector. The scale and causes of the irregularities should be judged by the results of the investigations.

4. Turkish industry and exports: new ASELSAN contracts

Turkish defence company ASELSAN announced new export agreements totalling $157.9 million.

The contracts cover electronic warfare systems, electro-optical equipment, reconnaissance and surveillance technologies, communications and other defence systems.

The news is relevant beyond the defence industry. Large technology export contracts create demand for engineering skills, complex components, specialised software and industrial cooperation.

The contract volume is not the same as immediate export revenue, though: deliveries and revenue recognition may fall in different periods.

Opportunities for foreign suppliers

Companies in mechanical engineering, industrial electronics, automation and specialised software can view the Turkish technology sector as a potential market for cooperation.

The defence industry has specific restrictions. Taking part in projects may require licences, end-user checks, compliance with export controls and additional clearance procedures.

An entry strategy for this market should therefore start with checking regulatory requirements and whether specific segments are really open to foreign suppliers.

5. Tourism in Türkiye: higher spending per visitor and a changing commercial model

Tourism remains one of the most important parts of the Turkish economy.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), tourism revenue in the first half of 2026 was about $25.75 billion. Visitor numbers fell 2.7% to 24.84 million, while revenue slipped only 0.1%. Average spending per visitor rose to $1,020.

These figures point to an important trend: the financial results of the tourism market do not necessarily move in proportion to the number of arrivals.

For business, this means a growth strategy can rest not only on more visitors but also on raising the value and quality of what is offered.

Which areas may be of interest

For foreign investors and operators, areas worth studying include specialised tourism products, corporate travel, sports tourism, wellness programmes and services for independent travellers.

The appeal of each segment has to be confirmed by separate research into demand, competition and unit economics.

Digital distribution is becoming a key factor. With regulation of international platforms under discussion, travel companies should assess what share of their sales comes through intermediaries and what share comes directly from customers.

Developing their own booking channels, Turkish-language content, search marketing and CRM systems can reduce dependence on individual aggregators.

Direct sales are not always cheaper. A fair comparison has to include the cost of advertising, handling enquiries, payments and customer service.

6. The political and administrative environment: why the local level of government matters to foreign companies

In early October, much attention went to the change of party by İzmir mayor Cemil Tugay.

According to the Turkish business digest, after leaving the opposition CHP he joined the ruling AK Party. The decision was accompanied by protests.

For foreign companies, the political side of the event is context first of all, not an economic indicator in its own right.

The more practical question is how powers are divided between municipal and central authorities.

In Türkiye, depending on the type of activity, businesses may deal with different public bodies: municipalities, ministries, tax authorities, chambers of commerce and sector regulators.

For projects in construction, real estate, retail or tourism, what counts are specific permit procedures, zoning restrictions and local administrative decisions.

A change in the party affiliation of a municipality’s head does not in itself mean an automatic change in permits, tariffs or investment conditions.

Companies should therefore rely on the official decisions of the relevant bodies, not on assumptions about the possible consequences of political events.

7. Business digitalisation: local technology and growing demand for automation

The Turkish technology market is not driven only by international companies.

Local enterprise software developer Logo Yazılım presented updated versions of its Logo Cloud and Logo Edge products.

Logo Cloud brings accounting, finance, sales, purchasing, inventory and production processes together in the cloud. Logo Edge offers a hybrid architecture combining on-premises and cloud infrastructure.

The products also come with stated artificial intelligence features for generating reports and analysing data from natural-language queries.

For foreign companies setting up operations in Türkiye, the development of local enterprise software is of practical interest.

Turkish requirements for electronic documents, accounting, tax reporting and personal data protection have to be taken into account when choosing ERP and CRM systems.

A local software product does not guarantee automatic compliance with every requirement of a given company. Particular attention should go to integration with existing international infrastructure, access rights, data storage and support for local electronic documents.

Artificial intelligence and the Turkish language

Another development was the arrival of a Turkish-language interface for Anthropic’s Claude. The system could already handle requests in Turkish, but the interface remained in English.

At first glance this is a small change. For companies bringing artificial intelligence into everyday processes, though, the convenience of the interface can affect how fast staff learn and how much the technology is actually used.

For foreign organisations in Türkiye, being able to work with customer enquiries, internal documents and analytical queries in Turkish is especially important.

At the same time, using AI to process commercial and personal information calls for a separate assessment of confidentiality, data storage terms and compliance with Turkish law.

8. What foreign companies should review before the end of 2026

Several areas stand out from the events of early October.

• Regulatory model. Companies that work through foreign digital platforms or offer services to Turkish customers from abroad should check whether local representation, a permit or additional tax registration is required.
• Financial risks. Investment planning has to take into account not only returns in lira but also currency revaluation, the cost of financing, liquidity and the reliability of financial intermediaries.
• Sales channels. Travel and service companies should assess their dependence on international platforms and the scope for direct sales. This is especially relevant while the rules for digital intermediaries are under discussion.
• Localisation. Turkish-language interfaces, customer service, accounting systems and documentation can significantly affect the efficiency of local operations.
• Partner checks. When working with financial institutions, technology suppliers and industrial companies, it is important to assess not only commercial terms but also legal status, obligations and applicable restrictions.

Conclusion: what is changing in the conditions for working in the Turkish market

The events of October show that foreign companies have to keep regulatory requirements, the state of the financial market and sector changes in view at the same time.

The most concrete potential change concerns digital booking platforms. If the bill is adopted, international operators will face new obligations, and Turkish hotels will get different terms in their dealings with intermediaries.

Volatility persists on the financial market. Türkiye’s international classification by FTSE Russell remained unchanged. The investigations into individual investment funds further underline the importance of checking financial instruments.

Industrial export contracts and the development of enterprise software show the areas in which Turkish companies continue to build technology and commercial products.

The main practical conclusion for foreign entrepreneurs is that success in Türkiye requires not only an understanding of consumer demand but also constant attention to local rules, financial conditions and the structure of sales.

Companies still considering market entry would do well to start with sector research, a check of applicable requirements and several financial scenarios.

Those already operating in Türkiye should regularly review their legal model, dependence on intermediaries, currency risks and the efficiency of local business processes.

Sources

• Aposto Gündem, business digest of 8 October 2026.
• Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM), Euronews Türkiye, Dünya: the bill on accommodation platforms.
• Anadolu Agency: the FTSE Russell decision.
• Yeni Şafak English: TÜİK tourism data for the first half of 2026.

Prepared as of 8 October 2026. Analytical conclusions are separated from confirmed facts. Legislative initiatives are described as of the publication date and should not be treated as rules already in force. This material is for information only and is not investment, legal or financial advice.