The major mass fraction of the envelope of hot luminous stars is radiatively stable. However, the partial ionization of hydrogen, helium, and iron gives rise to extended sub-surface convection zones in all of them. In this work, we investigate the effect of the pressure induced by the turbulent motion in these zones based on the mixing-length theory, and we search for observable consequences. We find that the turbulent pressure fraction can amount up to ∼ 5% in OB supergiants and up to ∼ 30% in cooler supergiants. The resulting structural changes are, however, not significantly affecting the evolutionary tracks compared to previous calculations. Instead, a comparison of macroturbulent velocities derived from high-quality spectra of OB stars with the turbulent pressure fraction obtained in corresponding stellar models reveals a strong correlation between these two quantities. We discuss a possible physical connection and conclude that turbulent pressure fluctuations may drive high-order oscillations, which—as conjectured earlier—manifest themselves as macroturbulence in the photospheres of hot luminous stars.