Representatives of hotels and tour operators in Turkey recognized the threat to their business in the form of two alternatives to the Turkish direction from Russian tourists. We are talking about Egypt and Dubai, i.е. United Arab Emirates. The presence of such competitors, and the fact that Turkish hoteliers largely “created” them themselves, raising prices beyond the bounds, was stated on the pages of Turizm Ajansi by Onur Otrush, CEO of Tatilbudur.com.
“Hotels in Turkey have increased foreign exchange rates by 10-20% by 2023 due to strong price pressure and inflationary environment. They had to do this because their spending has increased significantly in the face of inflation,” he said. He also added that on the Russian side, in addition to a 10-20% increase in hotel prices, the ruble lost up to 30% against the dollar.
“In addition, since the flight time to Turkey has increased from 2.5-3 hours to five hours, there has been a very serious increase in prices for tickets in Russia, which are also affected by inflation. If last year a ticket cost $100, now it can be bought for $180 or even $190. All this is reflected in requests for the purchase of tours in Russia,” he said.
As a result, destinations such as Dubai and Egypt have become obvious alternatives for Turkey. A Russian tourist can go there at prices that have either not changed compared to last year, or have added about 10% to the price.
At the same time, the expert added that the same is true for the European market. “There, too, the price difference of 40-45% compared to last year has a negative impact on demand,” he said. True, in the end, Mr. Otrush decided to “sweeten the pill.” “All these problems were in the past year, but the end of the season was successful. 2023 will not be easy, but I believe we will succeed,” he said.
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