The Finland Matka Tourism Fair has concluded. Alanya was represented at the fair by Şükrü Cimrin, a Member of the Board of Directors of the Alanya Tourism Promotion Foundation (ALTAV). Serving as a stand hostess, Seija Aspola, a resident Finn living in Alanya, promoted Alanya and provided information about Turkey and Alanya to the visitors. Making a statement regarding the meetings he held and his observations during the fair, Cimrin noted the following:
GÖZLEME SENİTLERİ ALANYA’DAN
As ALTAV, we participated in Matka, Finland's largest tourism fair, from January 19-22, 2017, in the section allocated to Alanya under the 200-square-meter Ministry stand. A total of 56,204 people visited the fair over 4 days. Since Turkey was the partner country of the Matka Tourism Fair this year, the rich content created throughout the fair by the Helsinki Cultural and Tourism Counselor Ms. Arzu Emel Yıldız and her team drew significant interest from visitors and contributed greatly to the vibrancy of the Turkey stand. To name some of these, a folklore team presented examples of Turkish folk dances accompanied by live music throughout the fair. Additionally, the famous ebru artist Hikmet Barutçugil introduced Finnish citizens to this beautiful art by performing ebru throughout the fair. Furthermore, a gözleme cooking team consisting of two women served gözleme to visitors throughout the fair, prepared on sac pans that were commissioned by ALTAV from Alanya carpenters and presented as gifts.
“ALANYA BANANA DELIGHT WAS SERVED”
Alongside this, the "1000 Fitten Türkiye" photography exhibition, consisting of photographs taken by photographer Alp Alper while flying over Türkiye for 2 years, was exhibited next to the Türkiye stand throughout the fair. Finnish celebrities gave presentations regarding Türkiye during the previously announced programs on the fair's seminar stages. On the first day of the fair, our Finnish Ambassador, Mr. Adnan Başağa, hosted all participants coming from Türkiye at a cocktail held at his residence. We, along with ALTAV and our other tourism professionals from Alanya, attended this invitation. During our meeting with Türkiye's new Finnish Ambassador, Ms. Päivi Kairamo, we provided information on important matters and invited her to Alanya. She stated that she would visit the Alanya region, where Finnish citizens reside in large numbers. In addition to the Finnish Alanya brochures, Alanya maps, Alanya Nature Sports Maps, souvenir keychains, pens, and bags featuring prints of Alanya and our sponsor hotels that we brought to distribute at the fair, the Alanya banana Turkish delight, which we took for the first time this year, was highly appreciated by the visitors.
“MEETING HELD WITH MISS FINLAND PRODUCERS”
Throughout the fair, we participated in many meetings on behalf of Alanya. In our meeting with our Ambassador to Helsinki, Mr. Adnan Başağa, we requested support regarding promotional activities and exchanged views. In our meeting with our Cultural and Promotional Attaché in Helsinki, Ms. Arzu Emel Yıldız, we discussed the joint activities we will undertake within 2017 and other fairs we will attend together. We held a meeting with the organizers regarding the pre-final camp of the Miss Finland beauty pageant, which we have been hosting in Alanya for 4 years, being held in Alanya once again.
“ALANYA SERIES WILL BE BROADCAST ON FOX TV”
We held an evaluation meeting with the production team of the `Alanyan Sankkarit` program, which was filmed under the sponsorship of ALTAV and DETUR and also supported by Alanya Municipality, Alanya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ALTSO), and Alanya Association of Tourist Operators (ALTİD), with Terhi Alanya also in attendance. We believe that the series, which was filmed in Alanya last summer and will begin broadcasting on Finland's FOX TV in the coming weeks, holds great importance for the promotion of Alanya. We thanked the production team because the locations and activities that we had presented to them during three different meetings held since January 2016 and requested to be included in the filming under the sponsorship of ALTAV have been used in the series. Finns, who will watch the series that has achieved much richer content thanks to the list we provided, will be able to access much more up-to-date information about Alanya.
“MEETINGS HELD WITH 25 DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL BLOGGERS”
As ALTAV, we have made it our duty to seize every opportunity at fairs that offer various possibilities to meet with the press and strengthen our relationships. Thanks to the preliminary meetings we began weeks before the fair and the confirmed face-to-face meeting appointments, we held meetings throughout the fair not only with travel bloggers from Finland but also from our target markets, namely Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, and Poland; during all these meetings, we delivered presentations on Alanya and invited the bloggers to Alanya in the coming months. Upon the conclusion of the fair, we have commenced our efforts to host these social media writers, who are active on many platforms and possess significant follower bases, in Alanya.
“WE PARTICIPATED IN LIVE BROADCASTS”
We conducted two separate interviews with Finland's official broadcasting organizations, YLE, one for radio and the other for TV. In these interviews, where all kinds of questions were asked, we made statements to address the security concerns of the Finnish people and invited listeners and viewers to Alanya. Additionally, we organized a program to host journalist Jari Tanskanen from YLE in Alanya in April 2017, just as we did last year. We gave similar messages in our interview with the regional newspaper Kirkkonummi Sanomat, and these statements and the related news were featured in the newspaper printings on the second day of the fair.
“DIRECT FLIGHT TO GAZİPAŞA ALANYA AIRPORT”
We were guests for 15 minutes on the live broadcast from the fair by Spirit FM, where we offered Alanya banana Turkish delight to the program presenters and answered their questions about Alanya, providing information on many subjects ranging from activities to do in Alanya to the Alanya-Gazipaşa Airport, from the tenders of golf centers to Finnair's direct flights to Alanya-Gazipaşa throughout the season until December 16.
“FIN CITIZENS' INTERNATIONAL DEPARTURES INCREASED IN 2016”
When we look at the Finnish market in general, a clear decline is noticeable between the entry figures for Turkey in 2016 and 2015. The number of tourists, which was 210 thousand in 2015, declined to around 120 thousand in 2016, representing a 43 percent decrease. Of these 120 thousand people, 60 thousand arrived via package tours. In 2015, package tour sales had reached 105,611 people. When we examine the summer holiday preferences of Finns in 2016, their travels to our European competitors increased by 6.3 percent compared to the previous year. In this situation, we can easily say that the 45 thousand Finnish tourists who would have arrived from Turkey via package tours went to our competitors instead. These are led by Spain, Greece, Croatia, and Italy.
“THERE ARE SECURITY CONCERNS”
In our meetings with Aurinko Matkat, one of Finland's leading tour operators, along with Tjareborg, Lomamatkat, and Detur, we learned that their plans for next year are either the same as or less than those of last year. It would not be wrong to show that the most important reason for the decline in Finland is the rise in security concerns due to the events that occurred in our country last year. In addition, the negative news regularly published about Turkey in the Finnish media, as in other Northern European media, is effective, especially on Finnish citizens who have never visited Turkey.
“FINNAIR HAS STARTED SCHEDULED FLIGHTS TO GAZİPAŞA”
Furthermore, the Alanya, Istanbul, and Cyprus promotions conducted by Türk Hava Yolları (THY) throughout the fair were met with great interest, and many warm ticket sales were carried out during the fair. The fact that Finland's official airline Finnair will start its direct flights to Alanya-Gazipaşa via scheduled services on April 1st this year and continue them until December 16th is a positive and encouraging development in terms of extending the season.
“THEY PREFER THE APRIL-MAY AND SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER PERIODS”
It is not far off that, once security measures are taken inside and our incident-free periods resume, we will also return to our former numbers by working wholeheartedly to promote our beautiful country on different platforms—both visually, in print, and on social media—outdoors. In our observations at the fair, many Finns who visited our stand expressed their interest in Alanya and stated that they would come in the summer of 2017. As our market that most prefers the April-May and September-October periods, which we call the low season, the Finnish market holds an important place for Alanya tourism. Our duty is both to promote Alanya abroad and to conduct on-site promotion by hosting the Finns coming to our city of Alanya in the best possible way. As ALTAV, our efforts in this market will continue in 2017, with TV program sponsorships, VIP, and media hosting being our priorities.