Hotel bookings down because of ISIS ???

[Jacqui Harvey]

Some Hotel owners are now telling customers that bookings are down because of ISIS.

This is a lady on T.A  who will be travelling from Pammukale to Calis  with two children and looking for an Hotel near the beach. She was told by members that the Oykun may be booked at this time.  This was her message on T.A. last night.

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Thank you. The Oykun has availability, I emailed them a few days ago. The hotel owner where I am staying was telling me this year is a little bit slow in Turkey because of ISIS so perhaps that explains availability at short notice. I will look at the other hotels suggested and roll a dice to pick if price is the same. Harman is out as it is slightly further away.
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I wonder, is there a  travel problem  because people are worried about ISIS in Turkey?.  Our flights were full going and coming back in May and June.  This week we could not get a September flight with Thomson's because they were fully booked.   We have got flights from Aberdeen for September with only 4 seats left.   If this is so, why are Turkish Hotel owners saying there bookings are slow this year?  I don't think it has anything to do with ISIS.  It is probably because booking a holiday to Turkey is not as cheap as going to, say, Spain.   

[Colwyn]

When I flew Bristol-Dalaman-Bristol in June I thought the flight out was probably at around 85% capacity and the return not much more. I guess that explains why seats one week before the flight were down by £104 (and I got a refund). It might also explain why I was bumped up to a forward seat on both legs. I guess ISIS might be one of the explanations. Last September when I told a friend we had just come back from Turkey he was astonished. Surely I was worried about Syria? I pointed out that from my resort to the nearest part of Syria was the same distance as London to Switzerland and a bomb attack in Geneva wouldn't stop me going to London. That point looks a lot weaker now since Turkey's Mediterranean beaches are just as easy to access as those in Tunisia. That may have a further impact on tourist trade.

However, every year hoteliers and restaurant leasers complain about trade being down, "Where are the English this year?". Perhaps we should wait for the tourist statistics are published at  the end of season.

P.S. I usually travel by Easyjet and they never publish information on how many seats are left. Instead they say "Only four more seats at this price" which can be a very different thing".

[nichola]

According to all our wholesalers they say business is definitely down this year.

I suspect that there are a number of reasons for this: over priced flights and packages compared to other closer destinations, ignorance on the part of many who don't know Turkey's geography and how far away Syria is, fear mongering; people reading and believing everything they read in the Mail and Express...

Also the poor Russian economy has had a huge impact on the numbers of Russians visiting and we got our fair share in Fethiye. It's had a bigger impact on hotels in Antalya who anticipated this and as a result increased their marketing in the UK so we have probably lost some British tourists who might have come to Fethiye.

On the plus side the number of Chinese visitors to Fethiye has soared.

[littlereddevil]

P.S. I usually travel by Easyjet and they never publish information on how many seats are left. Instead they say "Only four more seats at this price" which can be a very different thing".
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I also find that with the airlines I use

[Colwyn]

Nichola.
What about Turkish tourists? Are numbers up this year?

[nichola]

Definitely down Colwyn.

Doğan puts this down to Ramazan and the election. He thinks it may pick up at the end of Ramazan...

[Laura B]

Sorry but you all have it wrong!   It's the Syrians to blame this year!   

http://www.todayszaman.com/national_syrian-refugees-affect-aegean-mediterranean-tourism-in-turkey-negatively_392063.html

[pompeylee]

Isis, asas, Syrians take a lot to keep me away from calls, Got some friends (staying in oykun) over for a week at the same as us in July & we'll back in September for another 2 weeks, love it & looking forward to it despite the weather warnings, hot next week I believe.

[Ally B]

After a month in Calis and speaking to loads of people we found that most of the  holiday makers we spoke to had been to Calis before.In fact the only newbies were living next door to us.Maybe I missed them but I have yet to see an advert on tv for holidays in Turkey. Does the tourist board think they can just lie back and people will come streaming to Turkey. There is a lot of competition out there.

[nichola]

Taking a walk along the prime location that is Fethiye Kordon last night we saw two of the 'new' restaurants closed and advertised for rent, a third looked like it had been recently rented and people were in the process of getting it ready to open.

The rest were pretty much devoid of customers barely a sprinkling between them.

Not a Syrian refugee in sight!

It all looked pretty much the same when we passed by again later in the evening having eaten our meals at the fish restaurant Girida, normally very busy but less busy than in winter I would say.

Considering the humongous cost of taking on these restaurants, plus rent, plus decorating and kitting it out, plus staff costs etc if this remains the state of play I would be surprised if many apart from Mancero, and the couple popular with Turkish people survive.