One of the most “European” resort cities in Turkey regretted the collapse of the Russian tourist flow in the 2022 season. Due to the events around Ukraine and large-scale sanctions against the Russian aviation sector, instead of the expected 500,000 vacationers, according to the most optimistic estimates, only a third will arrive. Mustafa Deliveli, President of the Association of Tourist Hoteliers and Operators of the South Aegean Sea, spoke in detail about this to the Turkish tourism media.
Here is what the official said about the start of flights from Russia: “The agenda on this issue is quite dense, the work in the Ministry continues. On April 22, flights of Russian airlines will begin on a small Russian aircraft SSC 100 (Rossiya Airlines will fly). The capacity of this plane is about 98 people, and by the end of April, on April 27, another plane will arrive. About 120,000 seats are planned at Dalaman Airport. Turkish Airlines distributed these seats among major operators transporting Russian guests to the area. If there are no major disruptions, we plan to accommodate 120.000 passengers at Dalaman Airport during the entire 2022 season. In 2019, we received about 450,500 thousand Russians and Ukrainians. This year our expectations were at around 500.000, if not for the situation in Ukraine. Under these conditions, we consider it a success to receive from 100,000 to 150,000 tourists from Russia.
Speaking about the upcoming beach season and problems with the massive Russian tourist flow, the head also noted that the Marmaris resort will have the busiest season in recent years. “In April, we expect about 85-90 thousand tourists at the Dalaman airport. Again, the vast majority of them – 75-80 thousand passengers will arrive from the UK. And for the whole season, our expectations, of course, are much higher. In 2019, Dalaman Airport received a total of 1.7 million passengers, in 2020 – only 430 thousand, and in 2021 – 483 thousand people,” he explained.
According to him, this year could become a record for Marmaris tourism and surpass the pre-Covid 2019 figures: the planned number of bookings has already exceeded 1.8 million. “It's a pretty positive picture, these booking numbers indicate that we will catch up with the 2019 season, which for us is one of the best seasons in new history,” concluded the travel expert.
For those who care healthy lifestyle, we recommend reading: “Doctors called three signs of diabetes in the legs.”