Sükrü Cimrin, Member of the Board of Directors of Alanya Tourism Promotion Foundation (ALTAV) and Vice President of Alanya Touristic Hoteliers Association (ALTID), participated in various fairs and events in Russia at the invitation of the Ural Tourism Association.
Cimrin attended the three most important tourism fairs in Moscow: Intourist Market, MITT and Best Russia. He then represented Turkey and Alanya at a press conference organized by the Ural Tourism Association in Yekaterinburg. The press conference, organized by the Russian Tourism Industry Union and the Ural Tourism Association on March 27, 2024, took place at the Ural press center of Interfax, the Russian News Agency in Yekaterinburg. Other participants of the meeting were Yuri Barzykin, Deputy President of the Russian Travel Industry Union, and Mikhail Maltsev, President of the Ural Tourism Association. The fact that the Russian Travel Industry Union is the top tourism organization in Russia and the Ural Tourism Association is its representative in the Ural region played a major role in the high interest in the meeting.
ALTİD AND URAL TOURISM ASSOCIATION SIGNED A COOPERATION AGREEMENT
The meeting, broadcast live from the Interfax studio, was watched online by 200 different media groups. That number reached 5,000 by the evening of the same day. During the live broadcast, Sükrü Cimrin and Mikhail Maltsev signed a cooperation agreement between the Ural Tourism Association, the Ural branch of the Russian Tourism Industry Union, and ALTID.
Participants in the press conference also shared their forecasts for the upcoming season. Yuri Barzykin said he expects vacation prices to increase by an average of 10-15%. Barzykin said this applies to both foreign travel and domestic travel in Russia. Barzykin said, “As for outbound tourism, last year it reached 70% of the total flow compared to the pre-Covid period. I don’t think we’ll reach the pre-Covid period this year, but we’ll get close to it.”
TURKEY PRESENTS TOURISM REPORT
Sükrü Cimrin presented a detailed report with figures on Turkey’s place in world tourism and the importance of Russia for Turkish tourism at a press conference. Cimrin also provided detailed information on the Turkish Tourism Promotion Agency’s (TGA) activities and preparations to welcome Russian guests in the best possible way during the 2024 season, both in facilities and outside the facilities, based on destinations. Şükrü Cimrin stated that Turkish hoteliers will be more careful about hotel pricing in the 2024 season, which Russian guests are very sensitive about, and that the facilities do not want to lose Russian guests.
WORK TO BEGIN FOR DIRECT FLIGHTS BETWEEN YEKATERINBURG AND ALANYA
Victoria Zamyatina, President of the Ural Tourism Association in Alanya and Member of the Board of Directors of the Ekaterinburg Ural Tourism Association, said, “We are considering the possibility of starting direct flights from Yekaterinburg to Alanya. We had a positive experience in organizing the Tyumen-Alanya flight before. In addition, the Moscow-Alanya flight is also currently implementing its program. We believe that the participation of TGA and ALTAV Board Member and ALTİD Vice President Şükrü Cimrin in the negotiations will significantly accelerate the achievement of results. We are happy that he accepted our invitation to visit Yekaterinburg before the new tourism season.”
Mikhail Maltsev, President of the UAT of the Ural Tourism Association, who spoke about the flights made and planned to Alanya, said, “We had intense flights from Yekaterinburg to Antalya and Istanbul last year. My Turkish colleague Şükrü Cimrin came to Yekaterinburg to discuss the possibility of opening direct flights to other Turkish destinations, including considering flights from Yekaterinburg to Alanya.” In addition, Maltsev stated that the share of air travel from Yekaterinburg to Turkey in the spring-summer season varied between 32 and 35 percent before the coronavirus pandemic. It is expected that seven airlines will operate flights to Turkey in 2024. This shows the importance of this direction for the residents of the Ural region of Russia.
Turkey and Alanya Presented at LETO-2024 Conference
ALTID Deputy President Sükrü Cimrin presented Turkey and Alanya at the LETO-2024 Tourism Conference held in Yekaterinburg on March 29. Cimrin’s presentation informed the participants about the current state of Turkish tourism, sustainability, efforts to spread tourism throughout the year, and the preparations made especially by Antalya and its surroundings to host more guests. The conference’s health tourism and SPA section also discussed the new trends in health facilities in Turkey, Hungary, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
The next stage of the negotiations is planned for the LETO-2024 tourism fair, which will be held in Yekaterinburg on May 17-18, 2024. The fair, which has been organized for over 30 years, is considered the largest in the region in the tourism sector.
“WE TOLD OUR COUNTRY AND REGION TO TOURISM PROFESSIONALS”
Sükrü Cimrin made the following assessment regarding the contacts established in Moscow and Yekaterinburg: “At the invitation of Alanya Tourism Association President Victoria Zamyatina and Yekaterinburg Ural Tourism Association President Mikhail Maltsev, we first attended 3 separate tourism organizations in Moscow, namely Intourmarket, MITT and Best Russia, and held various meetings. Then, in the city of Yekaterinburg, we attended a 1-hour press conference broadcast live by hundreds of media outlets from the Interfax studio with Yuri Barzykin, Deputy President of the Russian Tourism Industry, the highest tourism authority in Russia. This meeting in particular offered us important opportunities, both in terms of participants and the target audience. I would like to thank Mikhail Maltsev, President of the Ural Tourism Association, who provided us with this opportunity. We best conveyed Turkey’s tourism vision and the importance that Russia represents for Turkish tourism at this meeting and informed the participants. Two days later, at the LETO-2024 conference we attended, we also introduced Turkey and Alanya to tourism professionals in a 20-minute presentation and shared the latest information and developments about our region. We signed a cooperation protocol with the Ural Tourism Association and ALTİD, which I hope will lead to important achievements in the future.”
“WE WILL MAKE BEAUTIFUL PROJECTS WITH THE COOPERATION AGREEMENT”
“One of the important topics we discussed in Yekaterinburg was what needs to be done for direct flights to start between Yekaterinburg and Alanya-Gazipasa Airport (GZP). This issue was on the agenda and was covered in many media. This will also be one of the important topics to be followed up on within the framework of the cooperation protocol we signed with the Ural Tourism Association and ALTID. Our aim is to start direct flights from the Ural Region to Alanya after Istanbul and Antalya. Our cooperation will take shape in the coming days with different and new headings such as personnel supply and mutual regional promotion. During this trip, we also had the opportunity to listen to dozens of presentations from businesses and organizations offering different tourism products from different regions of Russia. I can say that we understand this market and its dynamics much better and that our awareness has increased. We would also like to thank the Russian State Vocational and Pedagogical University for providing volunteer translators during our trip.”
