Alanya’s tourism potential was showcased at the 45th ITTFA Belgrade Tourism Fair, held in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.
Elvan Güneş, a member of the Board of Directors of the Alanya Tourism Promotion Foundation (ALTAV), represented Alanya at the fair, which took place from February 22 to 25. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, this year’s activities included the promotion of our region and country with a total of 11 participants, including 5 regions, 3 hotels, 1 entertainment company, 1 agency, and Turkish Airlines (THY) in a 120-square-meter area. Alanya’s tourist attractions were presented to visitors from 40 countries and more than 900 participants at the fair.
Elvan Güneş, a member of the ALTAV Board of Directors, shared her observations and details of the meetings she held at the Belgrade fair. “Our Serbia Consultant Mert Demiral and Doğucan Lale, Deputy Director of Fairs at the Turkish Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA), organized the fair. Our Ambassador to Serbia Hamdi Aksoy also held high-level meetings at the fair. In 2020, 129,284 people from Serbia visited our country, 238,852 people in 2021, 357,787 people in 2022, and 311,738 people in 2023. Unfortunately, we experienced losses in reservations due to the devastating earthquake disaster we experienced in 2023. Serbian holidaymakers’ preferences shifted to Egypt and Tunisia, but they were not very satisfied with the quality of service in those countries. Although our hotel prices have increased and are higher than Egypt and Tunisia, we are experiencing an incredible increase in reservations this year.”
“DIRECT FLIGHTS SHOULD START”
“The target for the Serbian market this year is set at 400 thousand, but more is possible,” said Güneş. “For this, it is important for direct charter flights to Antalya to start. As a result of high-level efforts, direct scheduled flights have started to Ankara and Izmir, but Antalya is only served by charter flights of Air Serbia, the state airline of Serbia. Due to the small size of the aircraft fleet, it does not seem very possible to meet the increasing demand. Last year, we were the 1st country sending the most tourists to Serbia with 201,440 people from Turkey. In fact, the start of charter flights by Turkish aviation companies to Antalya will also greatly contribute to Serbian tourism. There is a huge increase in demand from us as well, since there is no visa requirement for Turkish citizens. I believe that this problem, which will benefit both countries, can be overcome through rational means.”
“RESERVATIONS INCREASED BY 75%”
Güneş shared the information he obtained from the meetings, stating that the reservation increases in the region were around 75%. He said, “The region’s locomotive agency, Big Blue, had added to its strength by acquiring the Kontiki tour operator in previous years. Big Blue, which participated in the fair with a very strong and large area, once again created a Turkish breeze at the fair with visuals from all regions of Turkey. In our meeting with Big Blue Board Member Enver Babat, we learned that there has been a 75% increase in reservations so far compared to the same period of last year, and that there is also a huge difference in revenue increases. Enver Bey also told us that they received a lot of demand but could not increase the pax number due to the limited number of airplane seats. The visitor density at the stands where B2B reservations were made at the fair was striking, and this caused reservation queues to form. The Alanya stand also attracted great interest as a destination throughout the fair and was actively preferred by visitors.”
“THERE WILL BE A NOTICEABLE INCREASE IN THE BALKAN MARKET”
Güneş, emphasizing that fair periods are an important opportunity, said, “As ALTAV, we are working to implement projects that will contribute to our region in the best and most efficient way. During the fair, we also had the opportunity to meet with members of the press and television channel officials. In this context, we will host Balkan Trip TV Director Jovan Markovic, who is very popular in the Balkan countries, and his 4-person team in Alanya in May to shoot a tourism program. We also agreed to host Vukalek Sandra, a social media phenomenon with 1.2 million followers on TikTok, at the Influencer Festival we plan to organize in Alanya in May. Marko Tadic, a social media phenomenon we hosted in Alanya at the first Influencer Festival we organized, also visited our stand. After the festival, he thanked us for our hospitality and said that he told everyone about the beauties of Alanya and that he was very happy to have this wonderful experience. They love Turkey and Turks in Serbia, the locomotive country of the Balkans. Turkish series are very popular here. Turkology was established in 1930 during the time of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. You can come across many people who speak Turkish. In addition, in these lands where the Ottomans ruled for 257 years, there are about 9,700 words derived from Turkish in Serbian, the official language of the Serbs. Their perspective on our country is very warm because of our many common points. According to the latest census conducted in 2020, the population of Serbia is around 6 million 600 thousand. More than 2 million people live in the capital Belgrade. They are a nation that loves food, drink, and entertainment. Every year, 65% of the country’s population goes on vacation. This year, we will see a noticeable increase in this market as the Alanya region. The high quality of service of our hotels and the fact that the all-inclusive system is being implemented at a good standard are the main reasons for our preference.”
“WE HAD A SUCCESSFUL FAIR PROCESS”
Elvan Güneş stated that ALTAV had a productive fair process and said, “We hosted the visitors who came to our stand at the fair, which lasted for 4 days, in the best way possible and told them in detail about the opportunities offered in our region. In addition, in order to maintain our communication with those who visited us and increase interaction, we encouraged them to follow our social media account ‘alanya_turkey’. We carried out exemplary works at the fair, both under the Ministry and in other regions. We have had encouraging developments, and we hope that it will be a good season where our efforts are rewarded.”
