Speaking at the "Burada Turizm Çok" panel, TÜRSAB President Firuz Bağlıkaya said: "If we cannot get our own citizens to travel, it is not possible for anything we do abroad to be sustainable. For this, the state has things to do as well.”
TÜRSAB President Firuz Bağlıkaya, who spoke at the panel titled 'Burada Turizm Çok', moderated by Mesut Yar, organized as part of the launch of our Tourismjournal news site, which takes the pulse of the tourism industry and broadcasts in 3 languages, evaluated the season and the industry.
TOURISM PROFESSIONALS IN ANTALYA ARE WAITING FOR RUSSIAN TOURISTS
Stating that they started 2023 well as a sector in Antalya, Firuz Bağlıkaya stated that they observed a serious decline in the Russian market as of May, and that there was a waiting in the European market due to the election.
Firuz Bağlıkaya said, “We started the first 2-3 months of the year well, but May looks very bad. Especially in the Russian market, there is a serious decline. I think the numbers will pick up by the end of the year. Turkey stands out with its products and competitive prices. While the Russians used to pay the appropriate transportation cost with a 2-3 hour flight to Turkey, now the flight takes five hours and the price rises, thus the advantage of the embargo for the Russian tourist destinations for Turkey has disappeared. Russians go to Dubai, Egypt or other countries in 5 hours. We are experiencing such turbulence. The suppression of foreign exchange also puts pressure on the sector. After a few years, we are going through a process where these wounds will be healed.”
TURKEY IS A VERY HARD COUNTRY TO COMPETE
On Mesut Yar's question about competition with the world, Bağlıkaya said: "Despite all the negativities, Turkey is a very difficult country to compete in tourism. It is an uncompetitive country with its nature, culture, gastronomy, sports and health tourism. But we have to admit that Europeans prefer countries that are close to themselves and use the same currency. Therefore, tourism revenues in the EU are higher. The tourism movement of those countries started 50-60 years ago earlier than us. For Turkey, tourism is a baby sector. While we were making allocations, Spain had gone ahead of tourism investments and started housing. Housing here started just 2 years ago. Housing keeps people connected.”
RESERVATIONS STOPPED DURING THE EARTHQUAKE PERIOD
Noting that they experienced a stagnation in the domestic market as the tourism sector after the Hatay earthquake, TÜRSAB President Firuz Bağlıkaya continued: “As TÜRSAB, we have made serious organizations since the first day of the earthquake. We have been involved in a lot of work. With the earthquake, reservations stopped. Tourism is a fun business. It naturally tries to stay away from the troubled place. There has been an earthquake in Turkey, but it is always said that the earthquake is also coming to Istanbul. Therefore, reservations to Istanbul stopped immediately. It stopped for 20-25 days. As TÜRSAB, we tried to turn the earthquake-related issue into a positive one with our foreign stakeholders at the fairs.
AS TURKEY, WE DO NOT SUFFICIENTLY USE THE OPPORTUNITY OF EARLY BOOKING
Firuz Bağlıkaya said that domestic tourists could not benefit enough from early reservation in terms of domestic tourism. Bağlıkaya continued his words as follows; “ For local tourists, I must say that our people cannot benefit from early reservation. Germans come here cheaper because they book their vacation in November. Early booking is very critical for the industry. It is necessary to make a holiday plan in November. There are more opportunities for early booking in Turkey. If you do not take your vacation in November, you will pay 2-3 times in July or August. If you want to have a holiday when you want, where you want and at the price you want, you need to make an early reservation. We start an early booking campaign every year.”
COUNTRIES WITHOUT STRONG DOMESTIC TOURISM MOVEMENT DOESN'T HAVE FOREIGN TOURISM
Firuz Bağlıkaya continued his words on domestic tourism, "The foreign tourism movement of the countries that do not have a strong domestic tourism movement is not good either. The domestic tourism movement is really very important. It is not possible for anything we do abroad to be sustainable if we cannot make our own citizens travel. For this, the state and the sector have things to do as well. There are special funds on this subject in civilized countries abroad. People pay special fees for vacation. Here, too, different applications can be made. For example, tax reductions can be made for the special quotas of the hotels for domestic tourists, and VAT may not be charged. We need to encourage local tourists to have a holiday. We are a tense country, we need a vacation.”
WE HAVE A LOT OF PROBLEMS, WHEN YOU ARE TOLD YOU WOULD SAY "NO WAY!"
When asked about the work of TÜRSAB, Bağlıkaya said: “As TÜRSAB, we are on the marketing side of the industry. It is important for us to overcome the difficulties experienced by tour operators and travel agencies with legal regulations. We have very serious problems with very simple issues. Members of the travel agency association, for example, have difficulties in transferring at the airport. You take a tourist and you will take him from Istanbul to Yalova, you cannot. You need to get a separate transport document from each municipality. We are experiencing a lot of problems that you will say, "Is it possible" when asked. In order to solve such problems, we are trying to overcome the problems with legal regulations by meeting with our ministry. We provide our members with the opportunity to market for free or with a small fee. We offer basic programs to our members to support technology. We prevent our members from being exposed to unfair competition through inspections.”