Hitit Computer Services runs passenger-service systems for 72 airlines across 48 countries from Istanbul — one of the largest non-GDS PSS footprints carriers can license — according to a Skift analysis of Turkish travel tech published Thursday by editor and founder Rafat Ali.

How big is Turkey's travel-tech stack?

The Hitit reach sits underneath a tourism economy Turkey has built to roughly $60 billion in annual revenue last year on more than 60 million visitors. Most of that infrastructure barely registers in global trade-press coverage, Ali argues, because Turkey fails the usual screens analysts run.

Why doesn't Turkey surface on travel-tech maps?

The industry draws its working map of travel-tech hubs from three signals: venture capital pools, engineering clusters, and the conference circuit. Turkey registers on none of them. Ali spent several months digging for similar reasons that produced his recent series on India, Montreal, and the UK — only to find a sector much larger than the industry realizes.

What's actually for sale to global buyers?

The exportable layer, in the analysis:

• Hitit — PSS for 72 airlines across 48 countries
• HotelRunner — independent-hotel connectivity to global channels
• SAN Software and Paximum — Antalya-based bedbank and tour-operator back-office
• Obilet — ground-transport aggregation
• Elektraweb — property and channel management

Consumer brands such as Wingie, Otelz, Tatilbudur, and Turna sit on top of that plumbing — strong at home, weak abroad.

What forged the stack?

Three forces, per Ali:

• Talent and transaction volume spilling from Turkish Airlines and Pegasus
• A protected home market
• A punishing operating environment

Lira collapse and 85%-plus inflation forced Turkish vendors to engineer multi-currency, multi-card, and cross-border payment systems out of necessity rather than design. That resilience now ports into export markets.

Agent association TÜRSAB pushed high-profile enforcement against Booking.com. In January 2026, TÜRSAB opened litigation against Airbnb, Expedia, Agoda, and Trip.com. New short-term-rental licensing rules further tighten the gate on global platforms operating inside Turkey.

Why don't the consumer brands globalize?

Ali calls the pattern "Galápagos syndrome." Operational competence in infrastructure is context-independent; it exports cleanly. The consumer surface depends on brand spend, marketing reach, and English-language product polish Turkish players never had to build at home.

The same protection that let Wingie, Otelz, Tatilbudur, and Turna grow domestically left them uncompetitive against Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Airbnb, and Trip.com Group abroad.

What does this mean for GDS incumbents and PE buyers?

Treat the infrastructure names as underpriced acquisition and partnership targets, Ali argues. Discount the consumer-brand tier as domestic-only.

Industrial capital from carriers such as Pegasus and trade-finance group Eksim Holding has historically financed the B2B layer in the absence of dedicated travel-venture capital. That scarcity also explains why cross-border M&A has barely scraped the segment.

A 72-airline PSS footprint, or an independent-property connectivity platform bundled with Antalya bedbank reach, carries clear adjacency value for Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport, or PE consolidators building outbound distribution. Even a partial partnership could shift margin on airline and hotel distribution for years.

What should sellers of inbound Turkey business watch?

TÜRSAB's January 2026 suits against Airbnb, Expedia, Agoda, and Trip.com — combined with the new short-term-rental licensing — will likely force inventory routing changes for OTAs distributing Turkish stays through 2026 and into 2027.