No:95 MAY/JUNE'07 - S&M Publication ltd

OTI Organizes “Sun Partners Antalya Tourism Festival”Flying Carpet Tourism and TravelCompany that operates in Israel saidthey would bring 40,000 Israeli touriststo Bodrum in 2007. Known asthe tour company that takes the highestnumber of tourists from Israel toEuropean countries, Flying Carpet’sGeneral Manager Yaron Miller said,this year there will be a great flowof tourists to Bodrum from Israel.The company arranged tours for 80 Israeliagents and tour operators to promoteBodrum. Israeli agents and touroperators admired Bodrum’s provinces,boat construction workshops, the BodrumMuseum, the Ancient Theater andcoves. The guests were together withBodrum tourism agents during a meetingheld by the organizing company.Israeli tourism agents were given infor-The Odeon Tourism International (OTI)Group will organize the “Sun PartnersAntalya Tourism Festival” withthe participation of 3000 tourism professionalsfrom 21 countries. AyhanBektas, CEO of OTI Group organizeda press conference last week togive news about what is new at OTI.Bektas started the conference with thegood outlook they have received inMoscow’s MITT exhibition. Bektas saidthat Odeon Tours of the group has welcomed20% more guests to its stand compareto previous year. He said the OTIGroup had increased its total turnover to$400 million and foreign currency inflowin Turkey to $250 million in 2006.Bektas announced that they would organizethe “Sun Partners Antalya TourismFestival” on May 15-16, 2007. Duringthe festival the managers of travelagencies and tour operators will haveopportunity to meet with accommodationand services providers in Turkey.Bektas stated that this year’s event will beorganized every year so that the promotionwill contribute to the development ofTurkish tourism. He said that Antalya’sKaleiçi region in particular would bepromoted to the visitors of the festival.Nearly 2,500 tour operators andagency managers from Russia, Poland,Ukraine, Azerbaijani, Kazakhstan,Georgia, Rumania, Lithuania,Estonia, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Italy,Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Slovenia,Bulgaria, Iran and Germanyand 300 representatives from Turkeyare expected to join the festival.During the festival, Shaman Dance Groupand Tarkan will give a concert at Kaleiçi.Flying Carpet to Choose Bodrummation on Bodrum’shistory, culture andalternative tourismspots. They also attendeda cocktailparty organized byScanway TourismRepresentative KadirAlkan, Flying CarpetBodrum RepresentativeYüksel Aslanand TÜRSAB BodrumExecutive CommitteePresident NasihDemir at the Diamond of Bodrum hotel.Miller said that during the Jewishcommunity’s Passover Holiday, which iscelebrated in April, they brought 2,000tourists to Bodrum and they had returnedto their country with very favorableimpressions. “We are glad about thepeninsula excursion and bilateral conversationsheld with the tourism agentsin Bodrum. We want to improve our tourismrelations that started three yearsago. Thus we organized this meetingto introduce Bodrum to Israeli tourismagents and tour operators. Our goalis to bring 4,000 tourists in April and40,000 tourists during the season. Israeliagents are very pleased with us. Thisyear there will be a great flow of touristsfrom Israel to Bodrum,” Miller said.ITE Congratulate B Group ExpoITE Exhibitions, a leading organizerof trade exhibitions and conferences,has sent an appreciation letter to BGroup Expo, which set Turkey Boothat Moscow’s MITT travel exhibition.Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry’sTurkey Booth was acquired vogue of bothstand owners and visitors of the booth.B Group Expo is an experienced companyin booth decoration and equipmentselection at mostly tourism exhibitions.Thomas Cook Promotes TurkeyOne of the world’slargest tour operators,ThomasCook, has publisheda 168-pagebrochure on Turkey. The brochurehas been preparedby Markamax advertisingagency in Antalya and was publishedin German, French and Flemish.The brochure informs the reader on Turkey‘s foreign policy, religion, cities,hotels, historical sites and tourist attractions.Thomas Cook’s brochure also includespictures of Turkey ‘s founder andfirst president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.Thomas Cook has already distributedthe first 10,000 copies and will continueto distribute a total of 160,000brochures. Thomas Cook’s brochureon Turkey will be distributed to touristsvisiting Turkey , as well as totravel agencies throughout Europe.Bodrum Expects 2,5 MillionTouristsAssociation of Turkish Travel AgenciesBodrum Branch official NasihDemir stated that they were expecting2,5 million tourists this year.“Last year 840 thousand foreign touristsvisited. We expect 2,5 milliontourists to visit Bodrum and approximately950 thousand of this figurewill be foreign tourists,” said Demir.