The four-day international tourism fair in Vienna, the capital and largest city of Austria, has concluded. Elvan Güneş, a member of the Alanya Tourism Promotion Foundation (ALTAV) Board of Directors and the General Secretary of the Alanya Tourism Operators Association (ALTİD), represented Alanya at the fair. Following her meetings and observations, Güneş stated: "THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS WILL VISIT TURKEY." According to the information I gathered during my contacts at the Vienna fair, there is an increase of approximately 15% in reservations. This market, which reacted most strongly to the political crises in recent years, is now in a recovery phase. There is an expectation that relations will improve further following the visit of Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karin Kneissl to Turkey in January. "70 COUNTRIES PARTICIPATED IN THE FAIR." The Ministry of Culture and Tourism continued its promotional activities, covering all regions of Turkey, with a 200-square-meter area. Approximately 800 companies from 70 countries participated in the promotional activities at the Vienna Messe Fair Center. Hilal Demirel, the Culture and Promotion Attaché responsible for Austria, and Cengiz Aydın, the Deputy General Manager of the Promotion Directorate, participated in the preparation of the Turkish stand, and we at ALTAV worked to take advantage of every opportunity to promote our region. We must not abandon this market, which reached 512,000 people in 2014, no matter what has happened in recent years. The number of people from Austria visiting our country was 486,000 in 2015, 311,000 in 2016, and 269,000 up to November 2017. "TURKEY HAS BEEN EXCLUDED FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS." In addition, approximately 25,000 people in the third age group are able to take vacations in groups with government support. Unfortunately, Turkey has not been among the countries designated by official authorities for the past two years. I hope that after the renewed relations in the coming years, we will continue with even greater demand. "SALES WILL DOUBLE." Michael Lettner, Sales Manager at TUI, stated that they plan to operate 6 direct flights to Antalya per week during the months of May to October, and that they expect a 200% increase this year, and that sales are continuing strongly. This information about a 200% increase in sales appeared in the Austrian press last week. "DIRECT FLIGHTS TO ANTALYA WILL BE AVAILABLE." Fabian Jahl, Team Manager at FTI, stated that they will operate 7 flights per week with Sunexpress, and that they also plan to operate 3 flights per week with AnadoluJet from Salzburg, Linz, and Graz to Antalya between June 15 and September 15. They have recorded a significant increase this year, and they have information that sales are mainly for Antalya, Belek, and Side in the region. Bülent Estekin, Austria Coordinator at Bentour, said that they received approximately 4,800 sales in 2017 and expect an additional increase of about 20% this year. In 2014, sales were very good. DE&HA Tourism General Manager Selçuk Yüksel said that they reached 150,000 people in 2014, but that this decreased to 10-15,000 people in 2017. They expect a 10-15% increase in 2018. Ruefa Tourism works with 110 agencies and is Austria's largest agency. Christian Zwickl said that sales were very good in 2014, but decreased to 2,500 people in 2017. They hope to reach 5,000 people with a 100% increase this year, and that sales are currently going well. In my meeting with Bülent Esin, Customer Service Representative at Turkish Airlines (THY), he stated that they plan to operate 5 flights to Istanbul and 2 flights to Ankara every day, and that they will continue to operate with the same capacity as last year. He also provided information that they will operate additional flights to Kayseri and Trabzon during the summer. "HOTELS ARE OFFERING SIGNIFICANT DISCOUNTS." Families are the main drivers of reservation intensity to Turkey. Families prefer 5- and 4-star hotels. Newspapers are reporting that you can enjoy a vacation in 5-star hotels in Turkey by paying the price of a 4-star hotel. The reason 3- and lower-star hotels are not preferred is that 5- and 4-star hotels are offering significant discounts. Furthermore, our Ambassador to Austria, Mr. Mehmet Ferden Çarıkçı, visited our stand. We told him that we would like to participate in any promotional activities planned for Alanya, and that we were waiting for him to contact effective media groups.