Islamic-style hotel demand up 200 pct

Hürriyet Photo

“Family style” holidays, or the kind of holidays preferred by more conservative members of Turkish society, have witnessed a 200 percent rise over the past five years, according to daily Milliyet.

“Every year new facilities are built to accommodate these holiday-goers, but there is so much demand that they are not enough,” said Şah Inn Paradise General Manager Yusuf Yücel. Şah Inn Paradise is one such five-star hotel in Antalya, a coastal resort town in southern Turkey that caters to a more conservative clientele.

“Six years ago we entered the hotel sector with the ‘family style’ concept. When we came up with this notion, we weren’t just thinking of the conservative segment. We came up with a model that would take into account jealous spouses, families and women, in line with Turkish norms and values,” Yücel explained to daily Milliyet.

“Turks have really taken a liking to this concept. When our customers are on vacation they are both at peace and comfortable because we provide them with the kind of holiday that they want and are accustomed to,” he added.

Facilities like Şah Paradise Inn are currently not enough to meet demand, according to Yücel, who said no other country in the world offered this sort of holiday concept.

The “family style” holiday concept has seen a 200 percent boom over the past five years and Yücel expects an even greater increase in the coming period. As a result, they are focusing on new investments, such as a new facility in Antalya’s Belek region.

“We have a project to build a five-star hotel that will be open all year round … In the next few years the Şah Paradise Inn label will also expand into the thermal and city hotel concept,” he said.
(Istanbul-Hürriyet Daily News)

Arab tourists’ interest in Turkey increases, say tourism officials

Officials of tourism agencies from Arab countries visit the Black Sea provinces of Kastamou and Sinop, and explain the reason why Arabs choose to come to Turkey.

Similarity between Turkish and Arab cuisine is one of the most significant factors for Arab tourists choosing Turkey as their holiday destination, according to officials from Arab tourism agencies, who visited Kastamonu and Sinop

Officials from tourism agencies from Arab countries, have spoken about why their citizens chose to come to Turkey for holidays. Among the most important factors they detailed were the food, the shared history, the natural beauty, and religious similarities between Turkey and their home countries.

The officials from Oman, Kuwait, Qatar Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi visited touristic and historical places in the Black Sea provinces of Sinop and Kastamonu over the weekend. The Western Black Sea Promotional Tour was organized with the cooperation of Turkish Airlines (THY), the Kastamonu Confederation (Kas-Kon), and the Turkish-Middle East Tourism Council Agencies.

Nasım Syed from Kuwait said his citizens chose to come to Turkey with their family since it was a Muslim country like Kuwait and so also used halal food. “Turkey is a Muslim country. At the same time, it attracts our citizens because the roots of the Ottoman Empire are on this land, and the Ottoman Empire protected and governed Arab countries in the past. Halal food and tasty dishes are other reasons for them to come to Turkey. Its weather is nice, too.”

Oman’s Samiri al-Ajmi said that there were very beautiful places in Kastamonu. “The city has a natural beauty.” He said the first thing that came to his mind about Turkey was that it was a good country for tourism, adding, “It has been said that the green areas in Turkey do not exist in any other place. I saw it when I came here. The fact that it is between the East and the West, Asia and Europe is very important in terms of tourism.”

Interest increasing every year

Sree Kumar, a travel agency official from Abu Dhabi, said his agency organized tours to Turkey two or three times a year, and that they had been working with Turkey for 15 years. “People’s interest in Turkey is increasing every year.”

Kumar said there were many people in Abu Dhabi who wished to visit Turkey. “Tours are organized particularly to Istanbul, Yalova and Bursa. Trips on the Bosphorus, historical areas and touristic venues draw the attention of our people. Its history is also particularly attractive.” He added that the opening of a new airport would encourage further tourism in Kastamonu.

Saudi Arabian Muhammet Nasır said Turkey’s natural beauty had also drawn the attention of Arab tourists. “Turkey is a beautiful country, and it does not require a visa. This is what first attracts us. We also have the same religion, and this is why our citizens want to come to Turkey so much,” Nasır said.

Bhauna Singh from Dubai said the reason why Dubai’s people came to Turkey was the hospitality of Turkish people and their smiling faces. He added that Dubai’s tourists generally liked to visit multi-cultural places, and so Turkey fits the bill. (KASTAMONU – Anatolia News Agency)

Russian tourists to surpass Germans in Turkey: figures

DHA photo

Each year, the number of Russian tourists to Turkey inches up, and it will soon surpass the number of visitors from Germany, the country from which the most tourists come to Turkey.

Last year, 3.5 million Russian tourists came to Turkey, while the number of German tourists, including Turks with German passports, was 4.8 million.

High quality facilities
The high quality of Turkey’s tourism facilities and professional services has made Turkey an important brand in global tourism, the president of Turkey’s Tourism Investors Foundation (TYD), Turgut Gür, told the Anatolia news agency. While most countries recorded a drop in the number of tourists last year, Turkey saw a 15 percent increase from the year before, with 31.5 million tourists, said Gür. He expects 33 million tourists to visit Turkey in 2012, and that the country will see $25 billion in tourism revenues. “All our early reservations are completely booked. We have not been affected by the European economic crisis. We see an increase in tourism revenues from Lebanon, Russia and Kazakhstan, countries unaffected by the crisis,” Gür said, noting that every year more and more Russian tourists are interested in vacationing in Turkey, particularly in Antalya and Belek on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. (ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency)