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Türkiye most favorite holiday spot for Russians in 2022

Türkiye has been the hottest holiday spot for Russians in 2022, according to a top tour operators association, driven mainly by the fact that their trips were hit by Western restrictions after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Some 5.3 million Russians visited Türkiye this year, according to Maya Lomidze, the executive director of Russia’s Association of Tour Operators (ATOR). Russian tourists have been one of the main drivers of the rebound in Türkiye’s tourism this year, in addition to a major leap in demand from Europe, spearheaded by Germany and the United Kingdom. Russians’ trips abroad have been disrupted by flight restrictions by Western countries after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also emerged as one of the top destinations for Russian tourists, although lagged way behind Türkiye with a significantly lower figure of 1 million, Lomidze said at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday. Another 850,000 to 900,000 Russians traveled to Egypt this year, while some 410,000 went to Thailand, she added. For the New Year’s holidays, about 3 million Russians will travel inside the country and about 600,000 plan to go abroad, according to Lomidze. Trips to Türkiye, Egypt, Thailand and the UAE have been the most popular for the break, with much lower demand for tours to the Maldives and Sri Lanka, she said. Backed by demand from European countries, foreign arrivals in Türkiye jumped 44.64% from a year earlier to 2.55 million in November, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry data, sustaining a strong recovery after a 2020 slump owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Russian visitors topped the list among nations in November with 312,486 arrivals. They were followed by Bulgaria at 232,709 and Germany at 207,340, the data showed. In the January-November period, the number of foreign visitors reached 42.16 million people, up 84.77% compared to the same period in 2021, matching pre-pandemic levels of 2019. At 5.48 million, Germans topped the list, followed by nearly 4.95 million arrivals from Russia and 3.3 million arrivals from the United Kingdom, said the Culture and Tourism Ministry. Türkiye expects to end 2022 with 51.5 million tourists and $46 billion in revenues. Estimates had stood at 45 million arrivals and $35 billion in income at the beginning of the year. It expects 60 million foreign visitors and $56 billion in revenues for 2023. Source: Daily Sabah

Russian tourist crosses Germany

Antalya hosted 13 million tourists as of November in 2022. By the end of the year, this figure is expected to reach 14 million. This year, Russia was at the top with 3 million tourists in Antalya. Antalya tourism professionals, on the other hand, expect higher figures than 2023 compared to 2022. Considered as the capital of tourism, Antalya exceeded the number of 13 million tourists as of November. It is thought that Antalya will complete 2022 with 14 million tourists. Antalya tourism professionals think that next year will be a better season compared to this year's figures. This year, Russia surpassed Germany with 3 million tourists and became the country with the highest number of tourists in Antalya. 2 million 800 thousand tourists came from Germany. Evaluating the year 2022 of tourism in Antalya and Belek region, Cornelia Diamond Golf Resort SPA General Manager Zafer Alkaya said, "The tourism sector had a successful year 2022 after a long break. The biggest advantage of Turkey, especially Antalya and Belek region, compared to its competitors, is its qualified and high quality service. It's time to turn this advantage into a tourism success in 2023. It's time to tell our difference to the world, especially to Europe, in 2023. We are the only tourism country in the world that perfectly implements the 'all-inclusive' system. "It has managed to become the focus of attention of all world tourists in all-inclusive service with the rain of services. We are at a level to compete in the best way with our competitors such as Spain, Portugal and Greece for luxury tourism in Antalya and Belek region." "We have high hopes that next year will be better than 2022" Alkaya said, "The year 2022 was a very good season despite some question marks. The numbers are at a satisfactory level, it was a year that brought the shine of 2019. We saw that there was an influx of tourists to Antalya, especially beyond what we expected. We think that this trend will continue in 2023. We have high hopes that it will go better than 2022," he said. "Antalya exceeded 13 million tourists as of November 2022" Providing information on the number of tourists hosted in Antalya in 2022, Alkaya said, "Antalya has exceeded 13 million tourists as of November 2022. I think we will reach 14 million tourists by the end of 2022. Russia, which is our fear and concern, is 2.5-3 million tourists. "It really surprised us by reaching the number of numbers. Germany followed Russia and gave a good performance," he said. Stating that some leagues took a break due to the World Cup, Alkaya said, "Almost all of our Spor Toto Super League teams came to Antalya to camp. We hosted Konyaspor in our facilities." "Accommodation tax is extremely natural" Evaluating the accommodation tax to be applied as of January 1, 2023, Alkaya said, "Accommodation tax is a tax applied in almost all countries. Therefore, it is very natural that it will be applied in our country as well. Of course, there are some question marks about the way of implementation. We anticipate that the question marks will dissipate and become much clearer over time.” Alkaya said, "We started to receive a lot of tourists from the UK, together with European countries such as Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the golf market. We started to receive a significant amount of British tourists, and Ukraine, which did not give up on us under any circumstances, was in the fourth place, but this year it was very "Even though they wanted to come, Ukraine could not come this year due to this special situation, the Ukrainian market has decreased to a minimum. In other markets, recovery started in 2022 and we started to reach very good numbers," he said. "The Russians surpassed Germany this year to become the country with the highest number in Antalya" Alkaya said, “After the pandemic, people's holiday desire really peaked. Our numbers are satisfactory in terms of the number of tourists. Therefore, we look at 2023 as a year that increased our market shares and reached new markets. This year, we host guests from new countries that we have never hosted before. Countries that have never been to Turkey before, started to come this year, these are very pleasing developments," he said. Stating that a question mark arose when the Russia-Ukraine crisis began, Alkaya said, "This question mark soon dissipated. Russia continued to send a significant amount of tourists in 2022. There was a large air traffic on the Russian side. The Russians again reached the highest number in Antalya this year. As the Russian tourists, our goal was to exceed 5 million, but around 2.5 - 3 million Russian tourists came, although there was a significant decrease in the number, we reached the figures that met the expectations. We received 2 million 800 thousand tourists from Germany. "Germans prefer budget hotels. Third Sunday, we call it the 'rising market'; England is on the rise. In fact, the target of receiving 3-4 million British tourists is currently set for Antalya," he said. Alkaya said, "The Russian market in June 2022 showed itself immediately. In terms of Antalya, Poland took the fourth place this year. The Netherlands took the fifth place with 450 thousand people. Kazakhstan was in the sixth place with 360 thousand 400 thousand Kazakh tourists. Romania is again one of the important markets. , took the seventh place. Romania also shows interest in luxury goods, villas. The eighth market is a market that never existed but is now emerging, Israel. This year, 275,000 Israelis arrived. The 9th market is Czechia, which is again a rising, promising for us market. As a group, we hosted tourists from 66 countries, mainly Russia, England, Germany, Kazakhstan, Romania, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Croatia. In this sense, the Eastern European market also caused us to gain a significant tourism income." said. Alkaya said, “Reservations for villas and suites, especially in countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkic Republics, are going very well. In the domestic market, we would not have received such high demand before, standard rooms would have been preferred more, but we started to receive very intense villa and suite reservations in the domestic market. We think that this interest will continue in 2023”.

Affected by sanctions, Russian tourists headed to Uludag

Russian tourists, who have visa-related problems with the West due to the war in Ukraine, have started to show interest to the northwestern province of Bursa’s Uludağ, one of Türkiye’s important winter tourism centers. “We have completed our preparations as hotels, agencies and guides,” said Murat Saraçoğlu, a senior official in the Association of Türkiye Travel Agents (TÜRSAB), stating that they expect this season to be productive. Pointing out that Russian tourists have visa problems due to the Ukraine war, Saraçoğlu stated that the reflection of the war on Türkiye’s tourism is positive. “Tourists from Russia started to be denied visas to many countries of Europe and the world. They began to prefer Türkiye as we have good relations and geographical proximity with Russia, and there is an understanding of a comfortable and quality holiday here,” he said. Noting that they expect mainly Russian tourists this year, Saraçoğlu said they started to receive reservations from Gulf countries. Though they are currently inclined to countries such as Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, there has also been a high demand from the Arabs in Uludağ since there is no winter season in these countries, Saraçoğlu explained. Accommodation fees go up to 9,000 Turkish Liras ($480) per night, especially during New Year’s Eve and semester holidays. In the two-day package program for the New Year, Uludağ, where a double room awaits customers at 17,200 liras ($920) per night, now also attracts Europeans after the promotional activities, Saraçoğlu said. The winter season will open on Dec. 15 in Uludağ, described as “white paradise” by ski lovers. Türkiye, which has maintained air links with Russia while other countries blocked flights and does not impose visa restrictions on Russian visitors, has been a popular destination for those leaving for “any place” they can reach. Turkish media have also reported an increase in the number of Russians purchasing or renting houses in Türkiye. From January to October, more than 45 million tourists visited the country, a figure close to the 46 million visitors Türkiye attracted in the same period of 2019. In the first 10 months of 2022, foreign tourist arrivals increased by 88 percent from a year ago to 39.6 million. Including Turkish citizens residing abroad, the number of visitors stood at more than 45 million. In the face of the rebound in tourism activity, Türkiye revised upwards its tourist and tourism revenue targets for 2022 to 50 million and $44 billion, respectively. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

Russians are also in Turkey for the winter holidays

According to the “European Tourism Trends and Expectations” report, Turkey has achieved the most significant recovery in tourism after the pandemic. In fact, the Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy is revising the targets upwards; "We are revising our 2022 year-end target as 51.5 million visitors and 46 billion dollars revenue once again. Our targets for 2023 are much bigger. 60 million visitors and 56 billion dollars revenue," he said. Until this year, the Russians were at the forefront of Turkey's tourism revenues. However, due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the number of tourists coming to Antalya for summer vacation this year has decreased compared to this time of last year. Still, for example, according to October data this year, 4.6 million Russian tourists came to Turkey on vacation. In other words, the Russians are still important in our country's tourism despite the war. Russian travel to Europe decreased by 95% When we look at winter tourism, it seems that especially Russian ski lovers will go to Europe in winter for a holiday, and this year they will turn their route to Turkey. Because due to the war, EU countries and many world countries do not give visas to Russians. In fact, Maya Lomidze, President of the Russian Association of Tour Operators (ATOR), made a statement on this subject. "According to the 2022 results, the tourist flow from Russia to Europe is 95 percent lower than last year and pre-pandemic 2019 levels," Lomidze said. In this case, the route of Russian tourists who prefer Europe during the winter holidays can be turned to Turkey. Murat Saraçoğlu, President of TÜRSAB Marmara BTK on the subject, said that it has started to snow in Uludağ and they believe that this period will pass well. Stating that Russian tourists have visa problems due to the Ukraine war, Saraçoğlu stated that the reflection of this on tourism in Turkey is positive; "Tourists from Russia are not accepted to many countries in Europe and the world. Therefore, Russian tourists prefer Turkey," he said. Russia Surprise to Winter Tourism Revenues Considering that the tourist flow from Russia to Europe is 95 percent lower, this year, while Russian tourists turn to Turkey for their winter vacation or ski vacation, Turkey can make a significant contribution to the winter tourism figure.

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Türkiye most favorite holiday spot for Russians in 2022

Russian tourist crosses Germany

Affected by sanctions, Russian tourists headed to Uludag

Russians are also in Turkey for the winter holidays