The Russians tasted summer Istanbul. In the summer the Turkish metropolis is increasingly positioned as a destination for a short, but full-scaled vacation, where you can find not only excursion programs and shopping, but also a beach. According to Turkish statistics, for the first 5 months of 2019, Istanbul was visited by 295 thousand citizens of the Russian Federation, which is 18% higher than the figure for the same period in 2018.

The tourist authorities of Antalya note the daily records of the arrivals of tourists, and the Russian tourist market shows the most significant results. Thus, according to Hürriyet Daily News, from January to July 18, Antalya hosted totally 6.9 million foreign tourists. This is an increase of 16%. Such figures mean that up to 86 thousand tourists every day arrive at Antalya airport.

The founder of the Turkish holding company Anex Tourism, associated with the Russian operator Anex Tour, bought up almost 7% of the shares of the British Thomas Cook Group. Among its assets is Intourist - the Russian tour operator. 

Starting from August 2, Ural Airlines launches charter flights on the route Perm — Antalya. This information was provided by the press service of Perm International Airport. The flights will be performed on Fridays on Airbus A321 with a capacity of 200 passengers. The flight time is 4.5 hours. Departure time from Perm to Antalya is at 2:40, and the return flight is at 19:00. 

Since 9-th of July there is the regular flight from Anapa to Istanbul with Onur Air on Airbus A320.  Departure from Anapa is on Tuesday and Friday at 03:40, arrival to Istanbul is at 05:40, and flight from Istanbul is at 01:00 with arrival to Anapa at 02:40.  The air company informs that the minimal price for the OW ticket starts from 5 500 rubles  (equals to 78 euro). 

“Prices for tour packages to Turkey will not decrease, since the demand for travel from Russian tourists is already very high,” told the Executive Director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze. “The demand for Turkey is so good that I do not see any prerequisite that the price may change.

Due to the increase in tourist flow from Russia, Turkish Antalya resorts have updated records of the past years. But the second half of the season may not be so successful for local hoteliers. According to the authorities of Antalya, over the first 6 months, the resort was visited by 5.6 million foreign tourists (+ 17% compared to the same period in 2018).

Russia has strengthened its position on the inbound tourism market in Turkey. Having become the first by the number of tourists in April, Russia confidently maintained its leadership in May. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Turkey, over the first 5 months of 2019, 12.76 million foreign tourists visited the country (+ 11.3% compared with the same period of 2018).

Daily Sabah informs that during the first five months of 2019 Istanbul city has got 5.4 mln tourists. And that is the biggest number for the last five years, Russian tourists are on the 3-d place according their number. The increase of tourists’ flow is 11%.

Tour operators continue to cut flight programs to Turkey from Tatarstan. As Kazan travel agents reported, Coral Travel and Pegas Touristic tour operators have canceled one flight. In addition, Pegas Touristic also changed the boards to Antalya to smaller ones: instead of Boeing-777, the flights will be performed by Airbus A321. Thus, if in May and the beginning of June, the supplier sent 2300-2500 people a week to Antalya, now only 1,870 seats are planned to use. 

Turkey will again be the number one destination for Russian tourists this summer, the Association of Tour Operators in Russia (ATOR) has said, according to Interfax. Russian tourists have again decided in favor of Turkey for their vacations, which is seen by a 10%-15% rise in demand for Turkish tourist packages compared to the same period last year, the business association said. 

“More than 6 million Russian tourists will be hosted by Turkey in 2019, the flow of tourists will increase compared to last year,” told the Culture and Tourism Counselor of the Turkish Embassy in Russia, Jelal Kilic.

The Russians in Turkish Antalya set a new record. In May, every second foreign tourist at the main Turkish resort was Russian.  According to the department of culture and tourism of the province of Antalya, the resort hosted 3.1 million foreign tourists over the first 5 months of 2019, which is 19% more than in the same period of 2018. 

According to statistics from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the country, over the first four months of the year Turkey was visited by 710.3 thousand Russian tourists, of which 391.6 thousand came in April.

This summer, three new cities of departure for charter flights to Turkey became available to tourists of Coral Travel tour operator. Moreover, prices for tours with departures from new regions are now lower than similar tours with departures from Moscow.   As Marina Makarkova, the head of the public relations service of Coral Travel tour operator, told that for the convenience of regional tourists the company in its charter flight program added three new cities of departure to the popular Turkish resort Antalya. 

At the start of the season the Russian tourist flow to Antalya shows a 30% increase compared to last year. However, according to the results of the entire summer season, local hoteliers predict a more not significant growth for the Russian market. 

The tours from Khabarovsk to Antalya on direct charters, which were for the first time launched by ANEX Tour, are being sold unexpectedly well. Also, Coral Travel and PEGAS Touristik have a good demand for Turkey in Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia.