Turkey: Russians are seldom regular guests

Turkey is the preferred holiday destination of Russian holidaymakers, although when it comes to how often they visit the country this source market still has enormous growth potential. In 2011, only 14 per cent of the 3.4 million holiday trips undertaken by Russians to Turkey represented a fourth-time visit or more, whereas the proportion of first-time visitors was 48 per cent. 37 per cent of Russians have already been to Turkey two or three times. These are the latest findings of the World Travel Monitor, a special survey carried out by IPK International and commissioned by ITB Berlin. One of its goals was to find out how often Russians, Germans and Britons chose a particular country for their holidays (not counting trips to relatives and friends). Depending on how often they visited a destination travellers were divided into three categories: newcomers, explorers (first or second-time visitors) and regular guests (four or more visits).

Turkey is a favourite with German holidaymakers. In 2011, 1.5 million (41 per cent) of the 3.8 million holiday trips undertaken by Germans to Turkey represented a fourth-time visit or more. Out of the 2.2 million trips undertaken by Britons to Turkey 31 per cent were trips by newcomers and 32 per cent trips by regular guests respectively. Visits by “explorers“ represented 38 per cent.

Commenting on the survey’s findings, Dr. Martin Buck, Director of the Competence Center Travel & Logistics, Messe Berlin, said: ”The number of times a country is visited is a very important sign of how popular a destination is. Holidaymakers who repeatedly travel to the same country are a measure of overall satisfaction with tourism services. In order to maintain that situation those destinations must constantly adapt to travellers’ needs.“

The findings of ITB Berlin and IPK International also confirm that Germans are regular visitors to the Netherlands. 63 per cent of Germans’ trips to their neighbours represented a fourth-time visit or more. Austria and Italy were ranked second and third among the countries that were regularly visited.

Conversely, Germany is the favourite holiday destination of Scandinavians, mostly of Norwegians. 64 per cent of Norwegians are genuine fans of regular visits to Germany. Among Danes this proportion is 55 per cent and among the Dutch it is 54 per cent. France is highly rated among Britons, 48 per cent of whom take their holidays just across the Channel. Russians prefer to visit their neighbours as well. 50 per cent of Russians were found to have taken their holidays four times or more in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.