First charter flights to Turkey may start not earlier than a week after lifting restrictions, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) said in a statement on Wednesday. "Lifting restrictions from charter flight to Turkey requires a relevant government decree," ATOR said. "Preparation of the decree takes time.

Ankara is taking all necessary steps to ensure safety for tourists, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with First Deputy Director General of TASS, Mikhail Gusman, ahead of his visit to Russia. "At the moment, there are no problems in Turkey, especially in the tourist areas. We are taking all necessary steps in these areas. At the moment the seaside is safe," the Turkish president said. Erdogan also voiced confidence that cooperation with Russia in tourism will continue. "Tourism is bringing our peoples closer together. I am sure that our cooperation will develop in the future thanks to Russians' arrival ," he said. "Family ties of those coming from Russia to Turkey and from Turkey to Russia, those who get married give impetus to developing relations as well.".

Turkey has issued written guarantees it will painstakingly follow all of Russia’s recommendations regarding measures to guarantee the safety of Russian vacationers, Russian presidential aide, Yuri Ushakov, has told the media. Also, Turkey agreed to receive a group of Russian specialists to discuss the issue.

Russians’ enthusiasm in travelling to Turkey is gradually increasing, the press service for the Association of Tour Operators in Russia (ATOR) reported on Monday. "Despite the country’s unfolding developments, Russians’ demand for Turkey is growing," the press office said in a statement on the ATOR website.

Russia is lifting all restrictions on regular flights to Turkey as of July 22, the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) said in a telegram sent to air companies and tourism operators. "Attention! The heads of air companies and airports. In view of the fact that the Turkish side has provided guarantees of increasing air safety measures, Russia is lifting all the previous restrictions imposed on regular flights (to Turkey) as of 00:00 22.07.2016," the document, which TASS has at its disposal, said. Russia has received guarantees from Turkey that it would tighten security at Turkish airports, a source at the Russian Transport Ministry told TASS.

Russian tourist operators will start sending tourists to Turkey on June 23, Maya Lomidze, the executive director of the Russian Association of Tour Operators, told TASS. "Biblio Globus is opening its flight program as of July 23. So, the first tourists will fly as of that moment," she added. She did not clarify when other tourism operators were going to resume flights to Turkey.

Plans are underway to pull out Russian tourists from Turkey by July 28, Vice President of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, or ATOR, Dmitry Gorin told Life Internet portal. "All of them are currently returning as planned," he said. "We will finish transporting passengers, who were due to leave on July 16-17, by today or tomorrow.

A Turkish Airlines’ jet departed from Istanbul landed in Moscow. "This is the first flight from Turkey that landed in Moscow after the coup attempt," Customer Service of Vnukovo Airport told TASS on Sunday. Flight TK419 departed from Istanbul at 01.38 Moscow Time, according to Flight Radar web-portal data. It was reported earlier about 100 Russian tourists got trapped in Istanbul airport because of the attempted coup overnight to Saturday. Russia has currently limited flights to Turkey. However, Russian and Turkish air carriers may continue performing flights from Turkey, the Russian aviation authority said earlier.

Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tasked interested authorities to submit proposals on recommencement of charter flights between Turkey and Russia within a week, press service of the Government said on Friday. "The premier instructed ministries of transport, culture and foreign affairs to present agreed proposals on resumption of charter flights between Russia and Turkey to the Russian Government within the term of one week in cooperation with other interested authorities," the press service said. Special attention should be paid "to the need of taking extra measures of ensuring transport securities and excluding flights to areas with high terrorist threat," Medvedev said in the document. Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on sales of travel packages to Turkey and asked the Government to provide for cancellation of the ban on charter flights to Turkey on June 30.

Russia’s cabinet of ministers is addressing the issue of resuming charter flights to Turkey, Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism Oleg Safonov said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel Friday, adding that flights may be resumed shortly. "The government is addressing the issue.

The flow of Russian tourists to Turkey will not be massive, as this country should do a lot to regain Russians’ trust, Sergei Korneyev, deputy head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism), has said. "I do not forecast the mass flow," he told reporters in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.

The average cost of travel packages to Turkey may go down by 20-30% after charter flights from Russia to the country are launched, Executive Director of the Association of Tour Operators (ATOR) Maya Lomidze said Monday. "According to preliminary estimates current prices will decrease by 20-30%," she said. Flights to Turkey are expected to be launched on July 7. On June 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin cancelled the ban on charter flights between the Russian Federation and the Turkish Republic by signing the amendments to the decree "On measures to ensure the national security of the Russian Federation and protection of citizens of the Russian Federation from criminal and other illegal actions and on the use of special economic measures against the Turkish Republic."

Turkey has not yet provided guarantees that vacationing in this country is safe, but Russians are not afraid of this, Maya Lomidze, the Executive Director of the Russian Association of Tour Operators (ATOR), told reporters on Monday. "The security situation in Turkey raises questions," she said. "So far, they [security guarantees] have not been provided.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry urges Russians to consider high terrorist threat risks in Turkey as they are planning their trips to that country, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday. "I would like to emphasize that amid the persisting risk related to possible terrorist threats, it is necessary to approach extremely responsibly the issues of planning trips and visit places, carefully assessing the situation and possible dangers," the spokeswoman said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday instructed the government to take measures to cancel the ban on charter flights between the Russian Federation and the Turkish Republic. A relevant instruction is contained in the amendments signed by the president to the decree "On measures to ensure the national security of the Russian Federation and protection of citizens of the Russian Federation from criminal and other illegal actions and on the use of special economic measures against the Turkish Republic."

Russia’s Federal Tourism Agency (Rosturizm) said Thursday it has launched the process to restore cooperation with Turkey in the sphere of tourism. "The ban on sales of tours to Turkey has been lifted. The Federal Tourism Agency is currently conducting work to restore cooperation with the Turkish Republic in the tourism sphere," the statement said.

Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia is against developing regular air communication with Turkey as long as the situation in that country poses a threat to Russian citizens, Rosaviatsia Chief Alexander Neradko said on Thursday. "Currently, we are against developing regular air communication until the situation allows considering the stay of our citizens in Turkey as safe," he said. The current situation in Turkey poses a threat both to tourists and the country’s population, the Rosaviatsia head said. "We see which terrorist acts take place in Turkey, as well as explosions and assaults," he said.

The number of Russian visitors to Turkey in the first quarter of 2016 is 66,100 Russians. A year earlier the number was 150,800 people, and in 2014 – 207,900 The number of tourists from Germany, where to Turkey comes the most tourists, for the three months of year 2016 decreased in 11.8%, amounting to 483,800 people.

Turkey and Egypt will not be reopened for Russian tourists this year, according to deputy head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism Roman Skory. "Turkey will not be reopened this year for sure, and the latest events in Egypt showed that Egypt will most likely not be reopened either," Skory said Thursday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has created problems for Turkey’s tourism industry by falling out with Russia, first deputy chairman of Russian Federation Council’s Committee on defense and security Frants Klintsevich told journalists on Monday. Commenting on the article in the Wall Street Journal that says that Turkey’s tourism industry is suffering big losses because of deteriorating relations with Russia and growing terrorist activities, Klintsevich said that it was possible to predict problems in the Turkish tourism industry before the tourism season opened.

Moscow cannot forecast whether the relations between Russia and Turkey will complicate any further, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. "I would rather not answer this part of the question," Peskov said in response to a question whether further escalation is possible in Russian-Turkish relations. "The relations are in deep crisis," he added noting that "Russia regrets it." "We did not cause this crisis," the Kremlin spokesman reminded.

On November 27, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow would suspend the visa-free regime between Russia and Turkey from January 1, 2016 The decision to this effect was taken after the Turkish Air Force attacked Russia’s Sukhoi Su-24 bomber on November 24 , 2015, as it was performing a task within the framework of the anti-terror operation in the sky over Syria. As a result of the attack, the warplane was shot down, one of the pilots - crew commander Oleg Peshkov - was killed by the fire emanating from the ground.

Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee chairman Alexey Pushkov has said Wednesday he does not see any prospects of resuming Russian mass tourism and charter flights to Turkey in the foreseeable future. "Talking about Turkey, I do not see any prospects of returning to the previous situation," Pushkov told a press conference. The official noted that Turkey remains a transit country for the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization. "No one can rule out terrorist attacks against Russian citizens since we take part in military actions against IS," he noted.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) has sent a directive to the Russian air carriers and airports on the introduction of additional measures to ensure safety of passengers and minimize all risks and threats during regular flights between Russia and Turkey, the agency’s press service reported.

Major tourism operators with the Turkish shares will have to review their presence in the Russian market, and many Russians, working for those companies, may face losing jobs, press secretary of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry Irina Turina said on Monday. "The holdings, which unite big operators, will have to decide whether they should continue working in Russia," she said.