A number of media outlets have reported that Turkey's tourism industry this season is increasingly switching to euro settlements for services, rather than the US dollar as before, which could significantly affect their cost.
Maria Batalova, executive director of the Turkish tour operator Coral Travel, said that, according to her forecast, a holiday in Turkey in the 2005 season, which traditionally begins in April, will cost about 10% more than last year. “In the new season in Turkey, for some types of services, in particular for the services of handling companies (providing services at airports), there is a transition to settlements in amounts calculated in euros instead of US dollars, as was the case in previous seasons,” said Maria Batalova.
According to her, this does not mean that the graphic symbol of one currency will be mechanically corrected to another on price tags: “Of course, the numbers in price catalogs will become smaller, since the exchange rates of the euro are higher than the dollar ones.” The executive director noted that her company conducted a detailed analysis “of the entire tourist package, and we came to the conclusion that the average price increase in the new season will be about 10%.” “This is precisely the average value, for all levels of service. It covers the entire range of services, including flights, hotel and meals,” said Maria Batalova.
For his part, a representative of the Bureau of the Advisor for Culture and Tourism of the Turkish Embassy in Russia said that “some rise in the cost of tourist services is possible, since everything in the world becomes a little more expensive over time.” At the same time, he said that the Bureau had contacted the president of the association of hotels on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, and he officially stated that the owners of Turkish hotels had signed an agreement to charge for tourist accommodation this year, as before, in dollars. According to the diplomat, in general, in Turkey in the near future, any massive transition to paying for goods and services in euros is not expected. “Our country will switch to the euro after joining the European Union, and this will not happen soon,” said the diplomat.
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