Strong summer season ahead

Foto: FVA

Some 4.5 million Germans holidayed in the Mediterranean country last year and more are set to travel there this year, according to Gözde Sahin, the Berlin-based Turkish tourism attaché in Germany. Her Frankfurt-based colleague Hüseyin Gazi Cosan said the German market grew by 10% last year. In its current marketing campaign the tourism ministry aims to encourage more Germans to holiday on the Aegean coast and to discover the country’s cultural attractions. City tourism, especially to Istanbul, is a key topic.

Turkish hoteliers are also optimistic about prospects from Germany this year. Osman Ayik, the new president of the Turkish hoteliers federation Türofed, told fvw: “I’m very optimistic for the German market. We can see that for 2012 the economy in Germany is in a better condition than in other countries. I expect an increase of 5-8% from Germany this year on the basis of the very successful year in 2011.”

Ayik stressed that carriers such as Sun Express and Air Berlin Turkey had “very large” flight programmes from Germany to Turkey this year. He stressed the higher hotel prices were “acceptable” in view of increased costs and of the “excellent value-for-money”. Tour operators had confirmed that summer bookings had started very well, he added. “We’re growing in Russia and other Eastern European countries as well, but Germany with its quality-conscious holidaymakers remains an absolutely central market,” he commented.

German tour operators have expanded their Turkey programmes above all in the Aegean region for summer 2012. TUI is offering combinations of hotels in Western and Southern Turkey and of city breaks in Istanbul with Aegean beach holidays. Neckermann has launched packages to the region and is featuring 40 hotels, while Öger Tours and FTI have also expanded their programmes for the region. Meanwhile, ITS has released its first separate Turkey brochure with 122 hotels, and FTI has its largest-ever Turkey programme.

In addition, Öger Tours and Neckermann are offering flights to the former military airport of Gazipasa to reduce transfer times to Alanya. Öger Tours product manager Altan Tarakci said the tour operator was investing long-term in the destination, had increased capacity to 70 hotels in total and would release a separate brochure for Alanya in early February. In all, German tour operators are confident of further growth this year despite price increases of up to 4% for holidays in Turkey.