Bodrum and its environs had very limited contact with the big centres of Anatolia until the 1960s. Being a seaside town, the relationship with the outside world was always through the sea and the main trade was with Rhodes island up to Ottoman times. During Ottoman times, the peninsula used to be a main stop for ferries travelling between Istanbul and Iskenderun. The main livelihood used to be fishing and sponge diving, however, with the improvement of roads, tourism became the main industry in the area.

The Committee of Tourism declared the area as a priority area for tourism in 1970 and as a result of this the area become well known nation-wide for tourism. With the expansion of the yacht tourism in the Mediterranean in the late 1970s and the opening of Bodrum Airport in the early 1980s the area opened its doors to foreign tourism. Turgutreis has the biggest area of service in the Bodrum region with several hotels, time shares, restaurants, shopping centres, night clubs, discos, bars with a total capacity of 30 000 beds.

Turgutreis Municipality continues to improve yacht tourism in the area with a newly built modern 500 yacht capacity marina in service. A project for a large port with the capacity to accommodate 3 large cruise ships is also under way.