Siberians are back to Turkey

This year, early booking campaign in Siberia turned out more successful than expected. The results were unexpected as well: tourists who ones switched from Turkey to other countries are now coming back and the early booking offers for the destination are now as active as never. According to the Head of Tez Tour's Kemerovo office, Elena Ryabokon, this February there were more requests for summer Turkey than for Thailand or Egypt. Representatives of other regional offices of federal operators confirmed the trend. “There are 80% more bookings than last year. Some departures for May holidays are already sold out,” explained the Director of Coral Travel's Novosibirsk office, Oksana Shokhadze.

Tourists finally learned how to save money, got the difference between hotels of various categories, became more responsible when planning their vacation, and stopped chasing last-minute deals; and all this makes operators happy as never.

"This time the promotion was announced very early – in December," explained to RATA-news the Director of Pegas Touristik, Anna Podgornaya, "And tourists have taken advantage, as there are certain hotels in Turkey, Greece, Spain, and some other countries which are in high demand on the Russian market. They can be on stop sale during the high season”. According to Mrs. Podgornaya, the number of early bookings at some leading agencies has grown 15-18%.

“It was exactly on the eve of this season when the idea of the early booking got under people’s skin," said the Director of the Novosibirsk Central Traveling Bureau, Igor Solovyev, "Three years ago a lot of people waited for the last minute sales and finally got a discount even greater than the one of the early booking offer”. According to him, there were few last-minute sales this year, as tour operators rated the market capacity and adjusted the programs in correspondence to the demand”.

However, the market participants recognize it’s almost impossible to get the picture of summer-2013 now. All the more, players of the Siberian market carefully increase the volumes of transportation; extend the geography of flights and the range of offers in Turkey.

Although, the majority believes Turkey is a non-competitive county to other Mediterranean destinations. “It’s clear that the season will be good for the destination," says Igor Solovyev, "For the next five-seven years the county will remain the leader of the summer season and nothing can change it”.

Anna Podgornaya believes that there’s the most optimal situation on the destination right now: “There’s a balance of demand and supply, price stability and dynamics, which doesn’t suppose a great increase in air transportation. And that's how it should be with all destinations. Operators have an opportunity to earn on Turkey now”.