Orhan Sancar, the Russia and CIS Coordinator for PEGAS Touristik, stated that the early booking period conducted in January, February, and March in Russia was successful. Sancar mentioned that hotels offered 10-15% more discounts compared to last year, which increased the sales of tour operators. “Hotels that provided a 30% early booking discount last year offered a 40-45% discount this year. Therefore, we managed to get through the first four months well. As PEGAS, we have guaranteed 400-450 thousand of the approximately 1 million passengers we plan to bring from the Russia and CIS markets by May,” he said.
Securing Seat and Passenger Guarantees
Sancar pointed out that tour operators in the Russia and CIS markets are ensuring seat and occupancy guarantees rather than making profits in the first 50% segment. He said, “Even if we break even, we negotiate with hoteliers and often find a middle ground. Our hotel partners are understanding in this regard, and we try to achieve profitability in sales,” he said.
Seat Capacity and Sales Strategy
Sancar explained that 6 million seats are planned from Russia to Turkey this year, but he predicts that around 4.5-5 million will materialize. “If tour operators increase the seat capacity to 5 million, there will be good and profitable sales in the following period,” he said. Sancar emphasized the importance of capacity planning to prevent the Moscow-Antalya airfare from dropping to 200 euros at the last minute.
Competition from Egypt and the Status of Airlines
Sancar noted that Egypt is significantly challenging the Russian market. “Egyptian airlines are exempt from the sanctions imposed by Western states on the Russian aviation sector, allowing them to complete flights between Russia and Egypt in a shorter time,” he said. He added that the same situation applies to Turkish airlines, with Turkish Airlines taking 3 hours to fly from Moscow to Antalya, while Aeroflot, which cannot use European airspace, takes 4.5 hours. Egyptian airlines have started to increase flights to Russia, providing an advantage to tour operators.
Privileges for Russian-Based Operators
Sancar mentioned that some tour operators supported by the Russian state are making competition tough in the Turkey destination. He said that these operators are allocated capacity at favorable prices from airlines like Pobeda and Rossiya. “Despite the lack of enough planes and capacity for these countries, this situation occurs,” he said. Sancar noted that Turkish operators in Russia are trying not to lower prices excessively.
Horizontal Growth and Alternative Strategies
Sancar explained that tour operators in Russia could pursue horizontal growth by making agreements with airlines in destinations. “Operators unable to fly with Russian airlines will make agreements with local airlines to transport passengers, as airlines from countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Egypt, and China are not subject to sanctions,” he said.
Evaluation of the Africa Tourism Forum
Sancar assessed the Africa Tourism Forum, saying, “We are witnessing such an intensive and large-scale forum in Sharm El-Sheikh for the first time. The Egyptian government attaches great importance to this. They immediately take action on how to overcome the crisis or current crises,” he said. Sancar stated that the forum was successful and believed that such events would be successful in the long term.
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