Turkey collapsed: Russian and German tourists do not want to share hotels with refugees from the earthquake zone, which was quite predictable. So, in Russia, sales of tours to Turkey have already collapsed by 25%: experts in travel retail told Kommersant about this. At the same time, tour operators named as one of the main reasons for this – the fears of tourists that they would have to “share hotels with refugees” who were sheltered by hotels after the earthquake. They also started talking about the reorientation of tourist flows in Germany – the Germans are also rapidly changing Turkey to other destinations, in particular, to Spain and Greece, and for the same reason – tourists do not want to relax at their own expense in hotels filled with refugees.
The fact that over the past week the demand for organized tours to Turkey has decreased by 25% was reported to Kommersant in Travelata.ru. The Russians are reorienting themselves from Turkey to the UAE, Egypt and Thailand, the company notes.
Tour operators are still describing the following picture to Kommersant. According to Intourist, immediately after the news about the earthquake, the volume of cancellations of applications for tours to Turkey increased by 10%, but later it returned to a normal level of 2-3%. At the same time, Travelata.ru added that the retention of actually incurred costs is still preventing mass refusals. But it all depends on how the situation develops further. According to ATOR Executive Director Maya Lomidze, the situation did not have a direct impact on tourists, however, part of the hotels in the resort area may be populated by residents of earthquake-affected regions, and this will most likely affect the tourist flow.
At the same time, prices for So far, no one plans to reduce Turkey: according to Travelata.ru, now the average cost of a tour to Turkey is 126.4 thousand rubles, having decreased by an insignificant 3.5% over the week – and most likely will not fall lower.
The second question is that Europeans can also free up places in hotels. The CEO of the German tour operator TUI, Sebastian Ebel, said that the number of vacation bookings in Turkey slowed down after the earthquake, and offered tourists alternative routes – this is Spain and Greece, where they are already redirecting their tourists who are afraid to go to Turkey.
Recall that the European market began to wonder whether the summer season will take place in Turkey just a couple of days after the earthquake, when hotels in Turkish resorts opened their doors to affected refugees. At least five days ago, experts from European news agencies have already calculated and presented to the public that tens of thousands of victims have already been relocated to hotels, and their number may still grow when those who now live in temporary tent camps join the refugees from the disaster zone. in ruined cities. According to preliminary estimates, there are about 6.5 thousand buildings in the disaster zone that are completely destroyed, and the number of partially damaged buildings is generally difficult to count. So Reuters stated that at the moment, the Office of the Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters and Emergencies of Turkey has calculated that more than 28,000 thousand people left homeless were taken out of the earthquake zone – and that they are planned to be placed in hotels in resorts such as Antalya, Alanya , Marmaris, Fethiye, Bodrum, as well as Izmir and Cappadocia. According to the then report, which was presented by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, 15,729 people were accommodated in state boarding houses, student hostels and hotels, and only in Antalya 11,165 evacuees received places in hotels. But since then, this figure is likely to have seriously increased. The Europeans have not been asked this question directly yet, but between the lines one can read the question – will the hotels be able to start the season in April? Read more here.
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