“The demand for tours to Turkey for the summer season 2019 within early booking program increased an average by 20-25% compared to last year, despite rising prices for tour packages”, told the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST) Irina Tyurina. 

In the first two months of 2019 Russian arrivals at the Turkish resort grew by 68% against the same period last year. According to the data of Antalya International Airport, over January-February 2019 more than 292 thousand foreign tourists arrived at the resort. This is almost 54% more than in the same period of 2018.

At the conference "Spring-Summer 2019", which Coral Travel tour operator held in Moscow, Turkish hoteliers noted that sales on the Russian market for the summer are not as intensive as they want. Some luxury hotels are ready to prolong the action of early booking. 

Russian tour operators made a forecast on the volume of air transportation and tourist flow to the main Turkish beach resort in the summer of 2019. According to the experts, adjustments for the flight programs from Russia cannot be avoided: tours to Turkey are becoming more expensive with each passing month. 

In January 2019 Turkey was visited by 34% more of Russian citizens than it was a year ago. This is an amazing result for a low season. Expanded charter programs of tour operators for the New Year holidays in Antalya and charters to the ski resorts of Turkey led Russia in the TOP-5 of the main entry markets for Turkey - on the fifth line. In January 2019, Turkey hosted 91,720 citizens of the Russian Federation. 

The interest of Russian tourists to Tunisia is increasing. However, the experts’ opinion on the growth in demand is different. So, the majority believes the number of sells have increased by 10–20% compared to last year’s figures, while Biblio-Globus notes 150% growth of sales on early booking stage.

The active booking of tours in Antalya by Russians for the New Year holidays allowed the Turkish resort to sharply revive the "low season" in January. And the Russian market once again confirms its leading position of source market in Turkey. 

Pegas Touristik tour operator made a trick to circumvent the ban, launching a flight from Moscow with a stopover in Antalya. The flight Moscow - Antalya - Hurghada has transported 200 Russian tourists to the Egyptian resort last week. The route was organized by Pegas Touristik tour operator. 

“The price of a weekly tour from Moscow to Belek (Turkey), for the beginning of June, in 5* hotels is at the level of 140 thousand Rubles (1,869 Euros) for two persons. It is a bit cheaper than a similar tour to Halkidiki (Greece). And equivalent to the cost of a tour to Rhodes.” said the representatives of the tourist retail. 

Already at the early booking stage Tunisia shows a rapid increase in sales compared with last year. This was a signal for some players to expand their flight charter programs to this country. According to tour operators, the demand for tours to Tunisia for the season-2019 has increased significantly: participants report that sales growth from 30% to several times.

The demand for tours to Tunisia has noticeably activated this year. The rate of early booking is 20% higher than last year. The increase mainly occurs due to the redistribution of tourists from the more expensive Turkish destination. 

Russia remains a leader of incoming tourism in Turkey. Autumn shows amazing results. Over the first 10 months, more than 5.7 million of Russian tourists visited Turkey, which is 16% of the total foreign tourist flow to Turkey. The Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Turkey announced data on foreign arrivals for 10 months of 2018.

According to the official results of 11 months of 2018, Russia remains the market number one for inbound tourism in Turkey, and Turkey itself is the main outgoing market for Russian abroad tourism. But, the most interesting thing is the colossal increase in tourist traffic from Russia in November.

Every third tourist at the main Turkish resort of Antalya this year is from Russia. The results of the season in Antalya are called historical, but in tourism a record tourist flow did not lead to an increase in income. Antalya Municipality has summed up the results of inbound tourism for 11 months of 2018.

Turkish hoteliers, following the results of 2019, plan to increase the volume of Russian tourist traffic, which this year reached about 5 million people (+15%). According to experts, to achieve such ambitious results, hoteliers will not significantly increase prices, but, on the contrary, will show maximum flexibility.

The increase in prices for trips to Turkey was caused by the demand not only on the Russian market, but also on the European one. In the summer 2019, the cost of a tour to the resort can grow by 30–50%, comparing with the prices for 2018. “With a probability of 95%, Turkey will reconsider prices for the summer 2019.

At the moment, sales of Turkey are already opened by a number of major players. However, experts note that this year the early booking of tours to this country is not as active as in the past. TEZ Tour operator is one of the first to launch the sale of tours in Turkey for the summer season. The action of early booking will last until March 2019.

The cost for rest in Turkey for the next summer season is 20–30% higher than last year. This was reported by travel agencies. According to the retail networks, nowadays the average price for tours in Turkey for March 2019 is 117 thousand Rubles (1,547 Euros), which is 36 thousand Rubles (476 Euros) more than for the same dates of the previous winter.

Russian tourists helped Antalya to update the historical maximum in the number of foreign arrivals. In the first 10 months of 2018, 12.5 million of foreign travelers visited the resort, 37% of them are the Russians. According to statistics of two airports of the region - Antalya International Airport and Gazipasha Airport – 12,53 million of foreign tourists arrived in Antalya from January to October (+ 28% compared to the same period of 2017).

The flight program to Turkey for 2018 is described according to ther plans of the tour operators: Coral travel, Anex tour, Intourist, Pegas touristik and Tui Russia.

In the beginning of the winter season, Coral Travel will offer tourists more programs in Turkey and new resorts in this country. The winter Turkey of Coral Travel will grow mainly due to the programs in Antalya and Alanya. The tour operator launches the winter program to Alanya (Gazipasa airport) for the first time.

Already in the first 9 months of 2018, 4.13 million tourist arrivals from Russia were recorded at the Turkish resort, which already exceeded all the record annual figures of previous years. Up to now, Antalya has not yet taken more than 4 million tourists from one country even for a year.