Trivago also mentioned in that article
Which is part of the Expedia group, who no doubt will be targeted the same as they're considering doing to Tripadvisor.
I think the crux of this conflict between TURSAB and the online booking portals boils down to the fact that domestic travel agents cant get the same deals from hotels (and hotel groups) that the online companies can. In addition, the hoteliers would much prefer to deal with companies that dont charge the level of commission and fees the online companies levy on bookings.
For the hotel industry its a difficult one - on one hand they get international exposure, but get less per room. On the other hand, if they dealt with the more traditional agents (in Turkey) then they'd get higher room rates, but less international exposure and ultimately less trade.
Given the choice, I think a lot of hotel owners might apply the first law of Turkonomics, less trade... higher prices.
The travel agency sector (in their mind) just want a level playing field. Sorry, that's not going to happen. The same thing that's happened to the traditional travel agent all over the world will happen in Turkey unless the change their business model.
I've been hearing more and more recently about some serious lobbying from several of the major hotel operators within Turkey, mainly as a result of the disastrous season last year - someone mentioned to me yesterday that it was very similar to the campaign carried out by the Catalan tourist body in Barcelona a few years ago. The difference being that it was done at a very high level and (the lobbying) received very little publicity. If memory serves correctly, some of those major operators are very close to the wee fella and his family.
It'll be interesting to see where this ends up, given that blocking foreign owned online booking portals who don't toe the TURSAB line will ultimately damage an industry thats currently on its knees.
JF