Turkey vows no price rises as Egypt suffers

A Turkish tourism official said holiday prices to Turkey would not rise this year off the back of the troubles in Egypt.

Turkey and Egypt are traditionally seen as direct competitors for tourists in the summer holiday season.

Travel agents have reported that while travellers are steering clear of Egypt after weeks of violent civil unrest resulted in the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime; Turkey is set to prove a popular alternative among holiday makers this year.

Sedat Gonulluoglu, Turkish Consulate General at the Turkish Tourism & Cultural Office in Dubai said that it was still too early to tell whether the political instability in Egypt had led to a bounce in visitor numbers for Turkey:

“We have not seen an increase in the numbers yet because our season has not started yet. We will see the numbers in April,” he said.

Gonulluoglu vowed that the Turkish tourism sector would not look to profit off the back of any increase in demand.

“We know there is a competition between Egypt and Turkey but we don’t want them to suffer.

“We will not raise the prices of the hotels and the airlines just because there is a problem in Egypt. We will provide the same reasonable prices. If people would like to choose us then that’s okay, we would like them to be our guests.

“But for us, while Egypt is in a bad situation, that’s not our style to gain something from that.”