Turkey tourism chief disputes price rise claims

The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry has disputed claims that prices in the country for summer 2011 had gone up by an average of £94.

Turkish Culture and Tourism Office UK director Tolga Tuyluoglu said the organisation had “not observed such a general increase in prices”. 

Tuyluoglu was responding to the results of a survey by The Co-operative Travel.  

“Naturally, one of the reasons for the appearance in price increases can be attributed to the depreciation in the sterling exchange rate,” Tuyluoglu said. 

“Furthermore, case by case price increases implemented by individual resorts or on a seasonal basis would be a rational economic response to the surge in demand witnessed this year for holidays to Turkey. 

“Indeed, as reported on the Co-operative Travel website this week, Turkey was the most searched holiday destination on Boxing Day, according to numbers released by Thomas Cook and reported by Travel Weekly.”