Abstract:

Tourism sector is the pupil of countries due to both its contribution to the economy and the positive impact on employment. Measuring the financial performances of the tourism firms, therefore, is crucial for managers, investors and other businesses in the sector. However, financial ratios were used to rarely to measure the financial performances of the tourism firms in the past. The main purpose of the study is to measure the financial performances of the tourism firms utilizing financial ratios. For this purpose, the Gray Relational Analysis (GRA) method is used in this study and financial performances of nine tourism firms traded in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) are evaluated as to seventeen financial ratios including liquidity, leverage, profitability, and activity indicators between the period 2008-2012. According to the findings, the most important indicator to measure the financial performances of the tourism firms is leverage indicator. Moreover, tourism firms are ranked with respect to the performance in the study. In this context, this study showed that financial ratios could be used in order to determine performance in the tourism sector

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