Heading for comeback in 2007

Turkey is set to recover in 2007 after a dramatic slump of 25-30% in the German market this year thanks to a moderate price policy by hoteliers. But it could take two good years for visitor numbers to return to the levels of 2005, according to tourism managers and officials. Those were the key messages at the recent FVW Workshop Turkey held in the Antalya region.

Turkey is a vital destination for the German outbound leisure travel market, stressed Klaus Laepple, president of the German Travel Association (DRV). “Turkey is irreplaceable for the German holiday market for strategic reasons,” he commented. The country should invest more in advertising, however, to promote its diversity of tourism regions and holiday products, he added.

Rainer Hoffmann, head of Destination Management for Rewe Touristik said that high single-digit growth was possible next year. “We should seek a comparison with 2005,” suggested Monica Urbschat, Alltours purchasing manager for Turkey. Joachim Seip, from Thomas Cook, said he expected it would take two years for the country to compensate for the slump in 2006.

Turkish hoteliers won praise for their moderate price policy for 2007. “We have met plenty of understanding,” commented Helmut Heim, Turkey product manager for TUI. In general, hotels accounting for about 80% of total visitor numbers, have held their prices stable for next summer while several newly-opened properties have hiked their low introductory rates.

While the market leaders all switched capacity from Turkish to the Western Mediterranean this summer due to the slump in demand, some specialists benefited from the autumn recovery. Isa Görgülü, of GTI Travel, highlighted a slight overall increase for this year and strong demand for next year. Franck Rieke, head of Nazar, declined to comment on this year’s sales but stressed the operator had “excellent” advance bookings for 2007.

Meanwhile, Vural Öger, owner of the leading Turkey tour operator Öger Tours, reiterated his long-standing warning that Turkey is building too many hotels and neglecting the accompanying tourism infrastructure in favour of high-rise housing blocks. “We have the best hotels in the Mediterranean but when guests go out, instead of promenades they find cheap shopping streets and housing blocks,” he criticised. Instead, Turkey should focus on developing “internationally recognised, innovative, sustainable and intelligent tourism”, he urged.

The workshop was jointly organised with the Turkish hoteliers federation Türofed and the Antalya regional hoteliers association. Alongside 25 German travel agents, as many as 300 Turkish hoteliers and managers took part in the two-day event.