Kaan Kavaloglu, President of the Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers and Operators Association, said, “We aim for the number of German tourists in Antalya to reach 4 million this year. Therefore, this year, Germans may surpass Russians.”
Kavaloglu, who is also the Vice President of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation, told the AA correspondent that the first figures have been formed for the reservations for the 2024 tourism season.
Pointing out that the interest of European tourists in Turkiye has increased, Kavaloglu said, “We are very happy that Germans have shown such intense interest in Turkiye for the first time. For the first time, Turkiye was ahead of even Spain in early booking sales. 1.5 million Germans made early reservations for Antalya. Germany and England are going very fast in early booking.”
Stating that early booking in the Russian market was a little slow due to the Russia-Ukraine war, Kavaloglu noted that this situation brought the European market to the fore.
Emphasizing that Antalya is the most important destination for Russians, Kavaloglu continued his words as follows:
“Our goal in Antalya is to exceed 17 million tourists. We aim to see the number of German tourists in Antalya reach 4 million for the first time this year. Therefore, this year, Germans can surpass Russians. If the Russia-Ukraine war ends, Russia will come first as always. Ukraine was the third market with over 1 million people, but we lost almost 80% of Ukraine as a market. England came, England became our third market with more than 1 million people 2 years ago. Poland is the fourth market.”
Reservations will be spread over 12 months
Kaan Kavaloglu stated that Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland are the “quadruple markets” that have become very important.
Reminding that the number of tourists from Poland exceeded 1 million for the first time last year, Kavaloglu said, “Polish interest in Turkiye is increasing both in summer and winter.”
Stating that Scandinavian countries may also reach their previous figures this year, Kavaloglu continued as follows:
“Therefore, we can say that a good year is coming. As tourism professionals, we always approach cautiously. Because there are three major crises we have experienced in the last five years. We were able to overcome all of these crises by being astute. Therefore, here we are trying to diversify tourism, spread it over 12 months, and get more homogeneous reservations by eliminating the seasonality barrier. In other words, we are trying to get reservations not only for July and August, but first for 7 months and then for 12 months.”
Kavaloglu also mentioned that they hosted Chinese tourists in Antalya and Istanbul last year, thanks to the work of the Tourism Promotion and Development Agency.
Pointing out the importance of directing alternative markets while protecting source markets, Kavaloglu added that there is an increase in the number of US tourists.
Source: AA / Prepared by Irem Yildiz