Taking into account the growth of Russian and European tourist flows to Antalya, Turkish experts specified the forecast for the number of tourists in 2018. According to the administration of Antalya, in June the resort updated its historic record for foreign tourist traffic, exceeding the most successful for Turkish tourism 2014.

The number of flights from Moscow to the resorts of Turkey will grow substantially in the near future. This was reported to the correspondents by representatives of tour operators. For example, according to the Sales Director of NTK Intourist Sergey Tolchin, from June 10 the flight program of the tour operator and Turkish Airlines will increase up to 10 flights per week (A320 airplanes with 180 seats).

“According to the plans of the company, the total number of tourists which Anex Tour plans to serve in Turkey in 2018 will reach 1.6 million”, - said Tatyana Grishina the Head of the sales department of Anex Tour company.

60% more tourists from Russia arrived in Antalya in January-April 2018 in comparison with the same period of the record 2017 and 44% more than in the same period of 2014, which is still considered as the best year for Antalya. According to the Department of Culture and Tourism of Antalya, during the first 4 months the resort hosted 1.23 million foreign tourists, which is 43.8% more than in the same period of 2017.

Even in the low season Russia was in the TOP 5 of Turkey's key incoming markets, significantly surpassing the record of 2017. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, in January-March 2018 the country was visited by 5.12 million foreign tourists, which is 35% over the same period in 2017.

“Turkish Airlines started direct flights from Istanbul to Krasnodar airport”, - reported the press service of the Russian airport. "The flight Istanbul - Krasnodar - Istanbul was launched on May 17, the flights are carried out five times a week", - said the airport representative. The flights are performed by A319 airplane with a capacity of 132 passengers on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Departure time from Istanbul is 1:10, arrival to Krasnodar at 3:05. From Krasnodar, the plane will depart at 4:30 and arrive in Istanbul at 6:35. As previously reported the scheduled flights to Istanbul from Krasnodar airport are currently performed by Pegas and Atlas Global airlines.

In 2017 Flydubai airline has increased passenger traffic on Russian routes by half in comparison with 2016. This year the company plans to maintain its positions at least. "In 2018 the situation depends on the exchange rate and the economy situation as a whole. We expect that at least the traffic will be as last year and possibly higher", - said the Senior Vice President of Flydubai Jeyhun Efendi. He noted that last year the airline increased the number of flights to Russian cities by 2.5 times. At the moment flights are performed to 11 airports in Russia including two Moscow airports - Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo.

“97,400 Russians visited Turkey in March, which is 66% more than in the same period a year earlier”, - according to the statistics of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the country. In total in March Turkey hosted 2.1 million foreign visitors - 35% more than in March 2017.

“The tour operators note a multifold increase of demand of Russian tourists for Turkey's resorts in comparison with 2017”, - reported the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) on Monday. "The demand for Turkey in the summer season of 2018 is very high, and in Moscow, and in St. Petersburg, and in cities such as Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Rostov, Samara, Krasnodar", - stressed the representative of NTK Intourist tour operator.

Representatives of the largest hotels in Turkey note the significant growth of the tourist flow from Russia and Europe. Many hotels have already stopped sales for Europeans to leave places for Russian tourists in the upcoming summer season. "We already stop-sale in our hotels for Europeans - we keep places for Russian tourists.

“Turkish airlines Atlasglobal and Onur Air have started flights to Antalya from Belgorod International Airport”, - the airport press service reported. The first Atlasglobal flight took place on April 26. The flight program is scheduled for the period until October 15, 2018. From Belgorod Atlasglobal flies four times a week: on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. The flights are performed by A321 with 216 seats. The first flight of Onur Air to Antalya from Belgorod took place on April 28. The flight program (from three to six departures a week) is planned until October 14. The flights will be performed by A321.

In Turkey the main planned figures for arrivals from two key markets were recently announced: 6 million tourists - from Russia and more than 5 million - from Germany. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu also has predicted the figures, being in Antalya. According to him, this year the country will achieve the results of 2014 - the most successful year in its tourist history and will host about 38 million tourists.

Another major tour operator declared about increasing of regional transportation to several Turkish resorts. The management of Coral Travel tour operator reported that in the upcoming season there will be flights from 45 Russian cities to Antalya (+4 against the previous season), to Dalaman - from 10 cities (+3), to Alanya - from 6 cities (+ 2).

“In summer of 2018 Turkey will become the undisputed leader among foreign destinations for Russians”, - said the Executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze. Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Bulgaria are also showing good dynamics. The demand for early booking of these destinations is twice higher as in the last year.

“The tourist flow from Russia to Turkey in January rose by 70% in comparison with the same period of the last year”, - according to statistics of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey. In January the country was visited by 68 thousand Russian tourists, which is 70.3% more than a year earlier - at that time the number of travelers amounted 40.1 thousand.

The Turkish Antalya summed up the results of foreign tourist flow for the first two months of 2018. In absolute numbers of arrivals the German tourists are ahead of the Russian ones, however, the growth rates of the Russian market are almost 3 times higher.

“OTI Group (the holding which includes the Russian tour operator Coral Travel), TUI group and Anex Tour have served the most volume of Russian tourists in Turkey in 2017”, - reported the local Turizmdatabank portal. In comparison with 2016, TUI has ceded leadership to OTI Group, while Anex Tour rose from the sixth line of the rating to the third.

We analysed flight programs of all Russian tour operators to different resorts of Turkey from all cities of Russia. There are more than 40 cities of departure from Russia Federation. Please see by the link the table with full details.

“In January 2018, 1.5 million tourists came to Turkey, which is almost 40% more than in the last year”, - reported the Tourism Review portal with reference to the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic, The share of Russian travelers increased significantly in the first month of the year, 68,000 Russians come to Turkey in January.

“Thanks to discounts for the early booking of the summer season of 2018, hotels in Turkey receive more Russian tourists and win in competition with domestic hoteliers”, - said the General Director of Intourist tour operator Viktor Topolkaraev. "Turkish hoteliers conduct very aggressive marketing policy (in a good sense of the word).

The new booking season for summer 2019 has started and the key question for tourists' is choosing the hotel for vacation in Turkey. A hotel loyalty program is a key strategy used by hotels to attract to its properties while selecting a hotel.

Turkey in 2017 returned the title of the most popular foreign destinations for Russians. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the country, the country was visited by 4.7 million Russian tourists, which is 444% or 5.5 times more than the year before, when there were 866,000 tourists.

Turkish Airlines announced the increase of transportation from Moscow to Antalya in the summer season - 2018 (from April to October). This was announced by the representative of Turkish Airlines in Russia Mefail Deribash. According to him, for this purpose, the airline has already booked five airliners of the list of 150 airplanes which will be included in the fleet of the company in the next four - five years (now the carrier has 330 airplanes flying in 300 directions around the world).

“About 4.7 million Russian tourists have rested in Turkey last year, more than in the most successful 2014”, - informed Hürriyet Daily News quoting the President of the Mediterranean Association of Hoteliers and Hotel Managers (ACTORS) Erkan Yaggi. According to him, in 2017 32 million foreign tourists visited Turkey, 10 million of them visited Antalya.

The tourism industry in Turkey expects a significant increase of a tourist flow in the summer season - 2018. The forecasts are based on the results of early booking program, which today exceed the last year's figures: 70% of the volume was added by foreign market and 30% by local.