Circular 2026/1: reporting to Türkiye's central tourism database

Türkiye's central tourism database (Merkezi Turizm Veri Tabanı) is a single center that collects accommodation facility data through integration with hotel management systems. Ministry circular 2026/1, dated 16.04.2026, obliges accommodation facilities and their software providers to send data to it through a web-service API (alomaliye.com, 6 May 2026). We have not read the circular's own text, and reported cadence and deadlines differ between coverage of the circular and TGA's own pages, so confirm your route.

A general manager gets a short email from the hotel's software provider: the Ministry now wants monthly figures from the system, and the first deadline has already gone by. The email is right about the obligation and vague about the schedule, and the vagueness is not really the provider's fault. The official texts themselves describe the schedule differently. After reading this article you will know what the circular asks, which sources disagree about the dates, what data is actually sent, and which questions to put to your provider in writing.

What is Türkiye's central tourism database?#

The Merkezi Turizm Veri Tabanı is a single center that collects the data of accommodation facilities across the country through automatic integration with their hotel management systems. The instrument is circular 2026/1 (opens in a new tab), dated 16.04.2026, issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's General Directorate of Investment and Enterprises and signed by the Minister. It sets out that aim and calls the data transfer an official obligation.

Its legal root is Article 11 of the Tourism Incentive Law (Law No. 2634), which requires certified enterprises to report to the Ministry, within periods the Ministry sets, the data used to determine the country's tourism indicators (Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, consolidated text of Law No. 2634, 01.11.2026). The circular also cites Law No. 7183 on the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA); TGA publishes the integration page, the guide and the privacy policy quoted later in this article.

Do not confuse this with KBS. KBS is the guest identity notification made at check-in, while this duty concerns aggregate operating figures. Different data, different recipient, different purpose; a facility can be fully compliant on one and late on the other. For the wider picture of what every stay involves in Türkiye, see the four steps of every stay.

The circular also asks for 2025 data to be sent in a single batch when the flow starts. That catch-up step matters for any facility that has not yet connected: the first real test of a connection is often a year of history, not a single month. The circular states no sanction, and neither do the TGA documents cited here.

What does circular 2026/1 ask a facility and its software provider to do?#

It asks facilities to send their operating data to the central database through a web service, and it treats the software that runs the hotel as the practical route for doing so. A web service is a defined way for two systems to exchange data without a person retyping it: the facility's hotel management system (PMS, property management system) or central reservation system talks directly to the database.

The duty sits on the facility. But the circular's framing of automatic integration with hotel management systems makes the software provider part of the chain in practice. If your PMS does not connect, the obligation does not disappear; it moves to the manual route described below.

Facilities without a hotel management system are not excluded. TGA's guide describes a web portal, the Turizm Merkezi Veri Tabanı Sistemi, where figures are entered by hand, open to Ministry-certified and Basit Konaklama (simple accommodation) facilities alike (TGA, 12.06.2026). Staff such as reception or accounting can be added as users on that portal.

What the circular text does not do: it does not list the data fields, set a sanction, or publish a revised schedule in the version we read. Those details come from TGA's pages, or from nowhere. That gap is why the rest of this article leans on TGA's own documents for the field list and the calendar.

When must data be sent, and what happened to the 15 May 2026 deadline?#

The deadline reported in coverage of the circular, 15.05.2026 (alomaliye.com, 6 May 2026), has passed, and we found no official notice of a revised date. The cadence itself is described differently by different sources, so the date you plan against depends on which text you follow.

Coverage of the circular reported the cadence as daily where the transfer is automatic and monthly by the 15th where it is manual, with a first deadline of 15.05.2026 (alomaliye.com, 6 May 2026; Dünya, 18 May 2026, quoting TGA's General Manager). TGA's integration page (opens in a new tab), last updated 26.06.2026, describes something else: monthly receipt, with each month's data sent once, by the 10th of the following month, and a one-time bulk submission covering January 2025 to April 2026 at the start. TGA's guide, dated 12.06.2026, splits the routes: facilities with a hotel management system send automatically through their software's API, those without one enter the figures on the portal.

The descriptions do not line up: the 15th against the 10th, daily against monthly. Do not resolve the conflict yourself; ask TGA or your provider which applies to your property. Any date you did not read in an official text should be treated as unconfirmed. Whatever the cadence, the defensible posture is the same: be able to show a submission for every month since the flow started, and a dated record of it.

What data is sent, and does it include guest personal data?#

Per TGA's guide and privacy policy, the data set is aggregate: no guest names, identity numbers or contact details. The figures listed in TGA's guide are guests checked in, person-nights, room-nights sold by guest nationality, the average room price in euros, and days open.

The counting rule matters more than it looks: actual check-ins only. Future reservations and cancelled reservations are excluded, which is where most mismatches with an internal report begin. If your front-office report counts bookings made rather than guests arrived, the two will not reconcile, and the fix is to align the definition, not to adjust the number afterwards.

The price definition is specific too. TGA's page describes the monthly average room price as reported in euros, net of breakfast, VAT and taxes (TGA, 26.06.2026). For conversion, TGA's guide recommends the central bank (TCMB) selling rate of the month's last business day. Confirm the choice with your accountant before the first submission, and write down the rate and the day you used.

On identity, facilities with a system send under anonymous IDs assigned by the software firm, not the facility certificate number (TGA, data transfer and integration guide, 12.06.2026), and the API data set contains no facility certificate or tax number (TGA, privacy policy, 21.05.2026). TGA's privacy policy (opens in a new tab) states it does not request, process or store direct guest personal data; statistical data is kept for 10 years and then anonymized or deleted. Each facility is responsible for the accuracy and currency of what it sends, and for informing its own guests under KVKK (kişisel verilerin korunması kanunu). Results are reported anonymized, in regional clusters rather than facility by facility. For the other compliance terms in play, see KBS, KVKK, e-Arşiv and ÖKC in plain words.

What should I ask my software provider, and what should I record?#

Ask for the connection in writing, and keep a dated record of every submission, because the facility, not the provider, is answerable for what is sent. TGA's policy places responsibility for the accuracy and currency of the data on the facility (TGA, 21.05.2026), so the provider's pipeline is your evidence, not your excuse.

The record routine is simple. For each period, save the submission date, the period covered, the figures sent, the person who confirmed them, and the provider's confirmation. Data quality follows from it: the figures should reconcile with your own reports, and where a front-office definition differs from TGA's field, fix the definition rather than adjusting the report afterwards. If you enter on the portal, keep the same record and note who holds user access.

What should I confirm in the original text and with an adviser?#

Confirm scope, fields and dates against the circular and TGA's own pages, and take your own case to an adviser before you rely on any date you heard second-hand. This article summarizes sourced documents; it is not legal advice, and the duty in general terms is only the starting point for your own position.

Scope is the first open question. Article 11 of Law No. 2634 binds certified enterprises, while the circular aims at all accommodation facilities. Whether a facility licensed only by a municipality falls under circular 2026/1 was not confirmed in the texts we read; ask TGA and your adviser. Cadence is the second: whether the reported "daily if automatic" wording still applies, given TGA's monthly description. Sanctions are the third: none of the texts cited here states one, and this article does not add one.

Use TGA's guide as the field list, and settle the price and currency definition with your accountant rather than with a colleague's memory. Keep the originals: the circular PDF and TGA's page, guide and privacy policy, each with its date, so you can show what you relied on and when. If you also work with official statistics, how to read and cite official tourism data covers the source lines, and the pre-season compliance checklist fits this duty into the wider calendar.

What to do next#

The obligation is clear and the schedule is not, so the next step is small and concrete. This week, ask your software provider in writing whether the connection is live and exactly what it sends, and open a one-page log where each month's submission date, figures and confirming person are written down. Then read circular 2026/1 and TGA's guide next to that log, with your adviser, so the version you follow is the one you can show.