The average cost of travel packages to Turkey may go down by 20-30 percent after charter flights from Russia to the country are launched, the executive director of Russia’s Association of Tour Operators (ATOR), said July 4, as quoted by Russia’s TASS.
“According to preliminary estimates current prices will decrease by 20-30 percent,” Maya Lomidze said.
Charter flights to Turkey were expected to relaunch by July 7 but little has been known since.
“A charter flight application for a total of 17 flights from Russia to Turkey on July 7 has been approved,” the Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM) said in a tweet, as reported by Reuters on July 4.
All scheduled and charter slights into Turkey as well as over the country are approved by the SHGM.
Russian President Vladimir Putin officially lifted restrictions on tourism in Turkey after mending ties with Ankara over its downing of one of Moscow’s warplanes in November 2014.
Putin signed a decree on June 30 lifting a ban on the sale of package tours in Turkey and ordered the government to permit charter flights to start flying to the country again.
Tour cost to Med resorts down by 10-11%
Despite the unclear situation with the possible launch of charter flights, this week featured the sale of tours to Turkey by CoralTravel “NTK Intourist”. The rest of the major players have posted offers on their websites since July 1st. Weekly tours accommodation at 3 * (all inclusive) are offered at an average price of 45-55 thousand rubles per person.
After the announcement of opening sales to Turkey, ATOR recorded a gradual decline in interest in alternative destinations such as Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Spain that still rameined at the top of the list though. The greatest decrease was noted in Cypriot, Bulgarian and Spanish destinations while the number of requests for Tunisia was slightly reduced.
ATOR analysts believe that tourists are waiting for lower prices on Turkey and hesitate to book other resorts and countries.
Hence, the average cost of tours to the popular resorts of the Mediterranean has declined by 10-11% compared to the end of June.
According to ATOR’s executive director Maya Lomidze, high demand for Turkey affects foreign destinations since “different consumers with very different preferences, choose different types of recreation.”
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