The 39th Hungexpo Tourism Fair was held between March 3-6 in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Alanya was represented by the Alanya Tourism Promotion Foundation (ALTAV) and the Vice President of the Alanya Tourist Operators Association (ALTİD), Mehmet Dahaoğlu. Monitoring the pulse of the fair, Dahaoğlu shared his meetings and impressions as follows:
“50,000 VISITORS TARGETED”
As ALTAV, we featured our promotional activities at the prominent booth established by our Ministry across a 150-square-meter area. We provided information on packages and alternative tourism by distributing promotional materials to agency representatives and guests. We met with the writer Goutazas, who visited Alanya last year, and gave a statement regarding Alanya content to the famous TV channel M1. We invited the same team to Alanya this year as well and discussed what we can do. At our booth, where folk dances were performed and Mevlevi shows were held for four days, guests were also treated to a live music feast. It is expected that 50,000 people will visit the fairground this year, compared to the 40,000 people who visited last year.
“TURKS ARE VERY LOVED”
The number of passengers to Turkey, which shows an increase every year, grew by 17 percent in 2015 compared to the previous year, reaching 140 thousand people. We heard about the successful work of Ms. Hilal Demirel, our Cultural Attaché responsible for Hungary, from many agency representatives, and in our interview with her, we learned that the Hungarian people love Turkey and the Turkish people very much.
“THEY LOVE TURKISH SERIES”
Stating that Hungarians are extremely interested in Turkish series, Attaché Demirel said that our series are still very popular, that they do not even accept guests on the days when our series are broadcast on TV, and that they organize trips to the locations where the series are filmed. Furthermore, Mr. Demirel expressed that our artists could become tourism ambassadors by participating in folk days to be held in Hungary, and that this action would provide great benefit in terms of the country's tourism.
“AIRCRAFT FUEL SUPPORT WAS RECEIVED POSITIVELY”
Ataşe Demirel also stated that the fuel support provided within our government's tourism package has been very positively received here, that they are conducting joint advertising studies together with operators, that our ministry is providing full support to this market in particular, and that if there are more participants next year, promotion can be carried out with a larger stand.
“9 FLIGHTS HAVE BEEN SCHEDULED”
Thomas Cook officials, on the other hand, stated that Turkey is an indispensable country, noting that there is currently a decline in bookings but that they are working to reach last year's figures.
Sun & Fun Holidays General Manager Tolga Deniz Sarıyüce, at the fair where they participated this year with 40 hotel operators from Turkey, addressed the importance of last-minute sales. He stated that they are in partnership with Deha Turizm located in Turkey, that they provide services in a large office in Budapest, that they launched the online tour operator lastcall.travel this year, and that they planned 9 flights per week this year, compared to 6 flights per week last year, provided there are no cancellations.
THE "3 S" EXPECTATION HAS CHANGED
Additionally, he promised that they would schedule flights for Gazipaşa-Alanya Airport, even if only once a week, in 2017. General Manager Sarıyüce stated that a rise is currently being observed in Greece and Bulgaria, Egypt is moving along a horizontal line, and there is a serious loss in Tunisia and Turkey. Saying that "sea, sand, sun" expressions were previously used in country promotion, Sarıyüce emphasized that nowadays, in contrast to these expressions, people are questioning with "security, security, security."
“RESERVATIONS HAVE DROPPED”
From the senior management of Green Travel, the largest tour operator in this market
In our interview with Hakan Varlıklı, General Manager Merdol Göktaş, and Coordinator İlke Baykara, they stated that they brought 30 thousand people to Antalya last year, and that their reservation numbers, which were 7 thousand during the fair period, have now declined to 4 thousand 500.
“THERE ARE CANCELLATIONS”
Before the security concerns, they had targeted 40,000 people with 14 flights per week, but they state that they are currently at a 60 percent deficit and want to sustain their existence by reaching a figure of at least 25,000 people by the end of the year.
The Hungarian people are seriously hesitant about the events occurring in Türkiye. They state that lately, if 50 reservations arrive every day, 20-25 of them are being cancelled. Green Travel, which set up the largest stand at the fair by incorporating 60 hotel businesses from Türkiye into its own structure, achieved an effective and successful promotion through the organizations it conducted.