AKTOB President Kaan Kaşif Kavaloğlu, who spoke with Mesut Yar at the Antalya Sherwood Exclusive Kemer Hotel, organized by our Tourismjournal news site, at the panel titled 'Burada Turizm Çok', stated that April has gained significant momentum.
Emphasizing that the number of tourists who came to Antalya in April exceeded 2 million, Kaan Kaşif Kavaloğlu stated that the number of tourists visiting Antalya exceeded 2 million and that they experienced a record month in April with an increase of 45 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
UKRAINIAN MARKET HAS DISAPPEARED BY 90 PERCENT
Kavaloğlu: “If Russian tourists come this year, we will have a good season. Because there is no market that can make up for the shortcomings of the Russian market. Our source markets, Russia and Ukraine, are still at war with each other. From this point of view, the Ukrainian market has disappeared by 90 percent. Until April 30, 10 thousand Ukrainians came to Antalya. I think these are the ones who have settled down. Russia fell below the German market for the first time. If 3.5 million Russian tourists are brought to the city, we will catch all 15 million. For Antalya, there is the UK market, which seems to be a plus, exceeding 1 million. There are 1.5 million people in this market. There are 55-60 million packages out to world tourism from Germany and England. We still have a long way to go in the UK market. Antalya and Turkey are world tourism. Tourism professionals can catch the 2019 revenue figure, but they cannot achieve profitability for a very long time."
TURKISH EUROPE AND LOCAL TOURISTS ARE A MUST HAVE
Kaan Kaşif Kavaloğlu, noting that the costs have increased by more than one hundred percent due to the increasing inflation, continued his words as follows: “The exchange rate is also below our expectations. Profitability will not reach the profitability of 2019 for a long time. Domestic tourism is a must for Antalya. There are two source markets that have not abandoned us. The next one after abroad is the European Turks. In times of crisis, it is a very good resource. But we care about the domestic market not only in times of crisis, but throughout the season.”