A new airport will open in Alanya, Turkey by the beginning of the 2009 Summer Season Mar 02, 2009

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By the beginning of the next summer season a new airport will open in Alanya, a Turkish resort area. The resort will become closer to the Russian tourists. As the mayor of Alanya, Hassan Hipasioglu declares this resort will have its own airport this season; some 60 million Euros were invested in its development. The airport will be located in the Gazi Pasha, a suburb of Alanya, 35 km from downtown. At the moment the closest airport is 130 km away – in Antalya, Turkey. “We expect that the number of tourists, including those from Russia, will increase considerably” - said the mayor, adding that, Russians are currently the 5th most frequents visitors in Alanya, and in 2007 Russians were the dominant tourist group in Kemer near Antalya.

Russian tour operators consider the new airport a great opportunity for the development of Turkish tourist destinations, and tour-business in general. However, the airport is unlikely to influence the tourist flow significantly. “Alanya is known for its economy class hotel accommodation across all of Turkey. And considering the current crisis these accommodations are likely to attract most of the demand.”- says Ghenadyi Kosarev, the sales director of “VKO-Travel”. In the same time the decrease in the distance from the airport to the hotels cannot influence the transfer fee included into the price of the tour for such service. It is possible that the new airport will give the tour operators a price jump in the form of airplane service, but these estimates have not yet been announced.

This way, the cheapening of the tours with accommodations in Alanya, due to the new airport, is still under question. According to expert opinions the Alanya hotels support around 20% of the whole Russian tourist flow to Turkey. On the other hand there are various limitations on the types of airplanes which the airport can receive. For example, airplanes of the Boeing-737-400/800 class can land safely in the airport, while the popular Boeing-757 cannot. This is the reason why not a single operator has yet announced of any chartered program with flights to the new airport. It deserves mention that according to latest information the airport is projected to open in the middle of May.