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Published on : Thursday, November 26, 2020
Turkey offers vacation opportunities throughout the year, depending on the season, with its beautiful shores, ski resorts, history and cultural heritage. This winter, Turkey is expecting to attract both local and foreign tourists, especially from Russia, Ukraine and Poland. Turkish Travel Agencies Association (TÜRSAB) Chairperson Firuz Bağlıkaya said that some tour operators have already planned charter flights from the countries due to this.
Bağlıkaya said that the charter flights have been planned mainly for the winter resort towns of Erciyes and Palandöken in the central Turkish province of Kayseri and eastern Erzurum. Other ski towns are also seeing high demand from abroad, namely Uludağ in Bursa, Kartepe in Kocaeli province and Kartalkaya in Bolu province in the northwest of Turkey.
Bağlıkaya said that in spite of the figures appearing slightly less than in previous years, the demand for winter tourism is expected to go up.
He added, “Uludağ Ski Center, which mainly attracts domestic visitors, is now seeing demand from Russian and Ukrainian tourists. Last year, some 350,000 visitors stayed at Uludağ, and it hosted a total of 1.1 million visitors along with the one-day visitors.” Palandöken Ski Resort, located on Palandöken Mountain in the eastern province of Erzurum, reached 80% occupancy last winter season due to bookings from Russia and Poland.
“As of Dec. 27, two charter flights will be made weekly from Moscow to Palandöken,” Bağlıkaya added.
Palandöken’s slopes are the longest and highest in Turkey, situated almost 2,000 meters above sea level.
Erciyes Ski Resort, which is another well-known touristic destination, also hosted around 2.2 million people along with one-day visitors last year. The charter flights will commence as of Dec. 18 from Russia, Ukraine and Poland and are expected to continue until March 15. Six charter flights will travel to Erciyes weekly.
Tags: Turkey