TURKEY has built a reputation as a value for money destination but specialist operators are keen to get across the message that the country can offer more than sun, sand and cut-price carpets.
Cox and Kings features Turkey in its new Middle East 2000 brochure. Product manager Hugh Fraser thinks the country needs an image change.
“People think of Turkey as a charter-flight destination with kebabs on the beach.
“This is a shame as the country has some of the finest Greek and Roman monuments in the world.
“Travel agents need to push the inland areas as well as the beach.”
Fraser fears Turkey may lose out to other destinations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern region, which arguably offer less in the way of historical sites, but have a better reputation as an upmarket or unusual location.
Turkey usually has the edge on prices though. Cox and Kings’ lead-in for a 12-day package, including flights and half-board accommodation, as well as guided tours of Istanbul, Cappadocia, Antalya, Kas, Pamukkale and Ephesus starts at £1,095.
For a similar break in Lebanon/Syria, the lead-in is £1,325.
Gloucester-based Dolunay Holidays offers a 14-day, three-centre break, with four nights in Istanbul, three in Cappadocia and seven at any of the coastal resorts in its Turkey ’99 brochure.
The lead-in of £850 includes bed and breakfast at three-star hotels, flights and transfers, and two guided tours in Cappadocia.
This is a far cry from the £420 UK average spent on a typical break in Turkey.
Turkish Tourist Office UKdirector Savas Kuce dismissed suggestions that visitors from the UK do not represent the higher-value end of the market.
“British tourists spend more than those from Germany and elsewhere,” he said.
“Tourist offices always say ‘Iwant AB visitors’. But if you operate in a mass market, it doesn’t work like that: you have AB, C1, C2, and you sell different products to each group.
“In Turkey we have the high-value golfing, skiing and conference markets, as well as budget holidays,” said Kuce.
Turkey is making a concerted effort to develop these niche markets. There are four golf courses in Antalya, as well as one in Istanbul.
Golf specialist Alternative Travel and Holidays offers a lead-in of £459 for a seven-night golfing break in Belek, Antalya. This price includes flights and transfers, five rounds of golf and half-board at one of six five-star hotels featured in its Golf brochure.
Anatolian Sky plans to offer golfing breaks by summer 2000, though as yet no UK operator has featured any of Turkey’s seven ski resorts.
“These resorts are very popular with Turkish and Russian skiers,” said Kuce. “Now we need to find a UK operator to deal with skiing in Turkey.”