Subsidies will not help Turkey to save the flow of tourists from Russia due to the fall of the ruble

Subsidizing of charter flights from Russia to the Turkish side is the actual measure, but it does not help to keep the flow of tourists, if the exchange rate will continue to fall, Russian tour operators have reported to ATOR (Assosiation of Tour Operators of Russia)". Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey reported that it will pay to Russian tour operators $ 6 thousand for each charter flight, from 15 September to 30 November, to support the tourism flow. Similar subsidy program has operated from 1 April to 31 May. According to Russian tour operators, it has been very popular and has reduced the rate of decline in tourist traffic. "Of course, any help, any assistance from our foreign partners is valuable and important. But the Russian departure fell in almost all the major summer destinations, and even on such popular as Turkey. Subsidized transportation to Turkey in the fall of the ruble against the major currencies is unlikely to change the situation," CEO of Pegas Touristik Anna Podgornaya said. The same opinion have in Intourist and Tez Tour. Alexander Burtin from Tez Tour pointed out that transport subsidies will support business, especially at theend of the season. However, according to Alexander Burtin, Russian companies participating in the spring subsidy program, have not yet received money from the Ministry of Tourism of Turkey. But tour operators rely on the implementation of agreements by the Turkish authorities. According to Turkish media reports, for the first seven months of this year, Turkey was visited by more than 500 thousand fewer Russians than a year earlier. Last year, in this period about 2 million Russian tourists came to Turkey, in the same period of this year - only 1.4 million tourists from Russia.