For the first 9 months of 2019 the Russian tourist flow to Antalya increased by 15%, every third holidaymaker on the Antalya beaches was from Russia.

Tour operators have to respond to high demand for Antalya with additional flights. Pegas Touristik increased the existing flight program in Antalya.

In the autumn the demand for European destinations such as Greece, Italy and Bulgaria has grown. The demand for autumn holidays in 2019 increased by 26% compared to last year.

Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and India are the leaders of the coming winter. For these areas winter sales grew by 1,5 times within early booking program. The early booking of tours for the winter season this year began very early and the interest of tourists in this action is very high

Pobeda air company is planning to start international flight program from the airport of Krasnodar. And the first destination will be Istanbul. Since 30.10.2019 Boeing 737-800 of Pobeda air company will fly to Istanbul twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday.

Russian tourists set another record of arrivals in Antalya. Over 8 months of 2019, the number of Russian tourists on the Antalya beaches exceeded the number of Germans, British, Ukrainians and Polish tourists.

According to available information, two more cities will be added to the list of the current 6 cities of departure to Istanbul, one of them is Adler (Sochi) airport. The second is Kurumoch airport, serving the cities of Samara and Togliatti.

In the beginning of November, charter flights of Intourist start from Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan and Ufa to Istanbul. The program will last till March 2020. The operator cooperates with Red Wings air company. The craft for the program will be Airbus A321-200 for 220 passengers in one class layout. The frequency of flights from Moscow will be 3 times a week, from Ufa — once a week and from other four cities —  twice a week. Tour operator says that this frequency may be increased if necessary.

Anex Tour (the Turkish tour operator) officially announced that the company is starting a cruise business buying the first cruise ship in its history. The cruise product of Anex Tour will be offered on the Russian market.

Nord wind has started booking for the new destination Nizhnekamsk-Istanbul.The air company will connect airport Begishevo (Nizhnekamsk, the population of 239  000 people) with Istanbul starting from October, 27 for the whole autumn-winter season 2019/2020. The lowest round trip ticket price is 17  450 roubles (about 250 euros). 

In the winter season 2019/20 the number of charters to Turkey will increase significantly: the winter tours to Antalya from 10 cities of Russia have become available in the booking system of Intourist tour operator. Considerable increase of transportation on the destination may reduce the prices of vacation packages. 

In January-June 2019, citizens of the Russian Federation made 21 212 095 trips abroad. This is 6.67% more than in the same period of the last year. Turkey became the leader of outbound tourism, Italy is growing rapidly and tourist flow to Thailand has slightly decreased.

From August 15, Royal Flight will resume charter flights from Kaluga International Airport to Antalya in Turkey. This information is provided by the press service of the regional government.   The agreement was reached at a working meeting between the region’s governor, Anatoly Artamonov and the general director of the airline, Besiki Kvirkviy.

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).