INDUSTRY analyst GfK has suggested Turkey that could see a near 30 percent slump in bookings for 2016.
GfK reported a 22% increase in season-to-date short-haul bookings and a 9% rise in long-haul, but a 3% decline in mid-haul, with bookings to Egypt down 41% year on year and no flights to Tunisia.
Spain up
David Hope, GfK business group director, said: “Since Boxing Day, we’ve seen a 3% increase in package bookings versus last year, with summer 2016 taking the majority.”
Spain is the big winner, with season-to-date bookings up 29% year on year. Portugal has enjoyed a 32% increase and Italy 15%.
Bookings to Greece are flat and Turkey down 29%.
Sunvil and Abta chairman Noel Josephides said bookings to Greece were “much the same as last year, when we had a good start, so we’re happy”. He added: “We trimmed capacity and our margin has improved. The $1,000 question is whether we have a ‘normal’ year.”
Advantage Travel Partnership commercial head John Sullivan reported revenue through the Advantage Travel Gateway booking system in the past week up 38% on the comparable week last year, with bookings “mainly to the western Mediterranean”.
Tui and Thomas Cook declined to comment on the market ahead of planned trading updates, but a Cook spokeswoman said: “Spain, in particular Tenerife, and Greece are our most-searched destinations for summer since the key booking period began.”
Turkey’s tourism sector is bracing itself for a bleak year, after an Isis-orchestrated suicide attack killed 10 people in the heart of Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district, outside the Blue Mosque, this month.
Up to 4.5 million Russians were already expected to change holiday plans after the Turkish military shot down a Russian jet that strayed into Turkish airspace on a bombing mission over Syria, and military operations in the south-east have added to a sense of crisis.
“Things are getting worse for Turkey’s tourism sector, with crisis after crisis erupting before the last one is resolved,” said Hürriyet Daily News columnist Günes Kömürcüler.