TURKEYand Greece have reported a slump in forward bookings since the outbreak of war in Serbia.
Turkish Tourist Office director Savas Kuce admitted that during the first week of the hostilities its UK business fell by 20%. This represented a shortfall of 4,000 bookings compared to the same week last year.
“The war was all over the media in every news item,” he said. “This, of course, created a lot of worries and the first week was a disaster for us because no-one was making any bookings.”
Kuce believes times will be hard for the tourism trade in all countries near to Serbia during April, unless there is a peace agreement soon.
Hellenic Tourism Organisation director Panos Argyros claimed there had been no immediate impact on bookings after the war began, but by the second week they had fallen by 20%-30%.
However, he claimed tour operators had already sold around 70% of their capacity for 1999 by the time war broke out, and he is confident that bookings will bounce back immediately it is over.
Despite the fall-off in forward bookings, both Turkey and Greece said only a handful of holidaymakers had cancelled their trips altogether.
Greek specialist Sunvil Holidays said only a few of its clients had cancelled their holidays, but admitted people were showing some concern.
n Cosmos has cancelled its programme to Croatia for this summer due to the conflict in Serbia. The operator had already received 1,500 bookings and had a further 1,000 left to sell.
n First-hand report from Croatia, see page 4