What are the latest trends that you witness in the tourism industry, with special reference to Turkey?
Off late, Turkey has seen a change in the profile of its visitors in terms of their expectations and aspiration. Today, more number of wedding tourists have started visiting the country. They are high end customers who spend a lot more than leisure or business traveller would do. Hotels in Istanbul and Antalya are going an extra mile to woo them in a big way. These are the two most preferred cities due to their scenic beauty and cosmopolitan culture. This set of visitors generally spend more on food, accommodation and sightseeing. The other set of visitors who are visiting the country are the young educated with a high disposable income. These generally visit the country for entertainment, special interest visits, adventure and sports like golf. These set of visitors generally spend more on activities rather than on accommodation and sightseeing, as for them exploring the place and knowing about the local people and their culture is more important instead of staying in the finest of hotels and travelling in style.
What are the key challenges that you face while promoting Turkey in India?
India is one of the largest growing markets for us and every year we receive increasing number of visitors. However, we have faced some hindrances in terms of making Turkey the top overseas destination for Indian tourists.
- Limited direct flights: Turkish Airlines which is our national carrier presently operates flights from both Mumbai and Delhi on a daily basis. However, a number of other cities from where we expect good number of tourists are not directly connected. Cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru can generate good traffic for us if direct flights are operated from these places. For this, our government is in talks with the Indian counterpart to get permission to fly to more no of cities for better connectivity.
- Limited cultural awareness: Majority of the first time Indian visitors still perceive Turkey as a traditional and deeply conservative country which is far from the truth. To break this myth we are using both electronic and print medium, besides various cultural events that we organise to build awareness about the country as a secular, modern republic that has a cosmopolitan touch in its appearance and behaviour.
- Limited destination knowledge: Turkey is still identified with Istanbul which is the international face of the country. Although, off late we have witnessed greater number of Indians exploring other cities of Turkey which have more beautiful natural landscape and culturally rich tradition to showcase like Pamukkale or Izmir etc.
- Limited food options: Indians, as we all know are very particular about food and a huge number of them are vegetarians. The options for vegetarian food they feel is limited outside Istanbul. To overcome this hindrance we are trying to create awareness about Turkish vegetarian cuisine that are available in great numbers and variety. We are using cultural events like food festivals, cultural festivals, FAM trips.
How important is the India market for Turkey?
Indian tourism market is a fast moving market which consists of consumer segments like family, honeymoon couple, wedding events, and sports etc. The dynamics of the market changes every year due to changing demographics, taste, preferences etc. When we started the operations in 2008 we had only 48,000 visitors in which 70 per cent were leisure travellers, 20 per cent were business travellers and 10 per cent were transit travellers. Within the leisure travellers, 50 per cent were family and 20 per cent were married couples. Today, the figure is at 74,000 approximately wherein 80 per cent are leisure travellers, 15 per cent business, five per cent are transit travellers. Within leisure travellers, 45 per cent are family members, 10 per cent are married couples, 10 per cent are honeymoon travellers, and five per cent each are wedding travelers and youth travellers
Which are your target segments and the most favoured destinations among Indians?
We have been receiving a lot of leisure travellers from India consisting mostly of family members or married couples. But off late a lot of leisure corporate travelers, wedding travellers and special interest tourists are also visiting the country. The most favourite destinations include Istanbul, Antalya, and Cappadocia .
What are the future plans of the tourism board?
As every year we have plans to participate in B2B B2C trade shows besides hosting road shows for the trade which happens in the beginning of every year. Apart from that, we also plan to carry out joint trade promotion with select companies apart from doing consumer promotion from time to time in order to create greater brand value and destination awareness about the place.
