Travel

Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mahir Ünal has said the sector has unavoidably affected negatively with the Russian crisis as well as regional uncertainties. He expects around 4.5 million losses in the number of Russian tourists this year. 

Tourist arrivals went up 8.6% in the January-September period, Hellenic Statistical Authority announced.

Now that Christmas holiday period is over, travelers are starting searching for their summer destination.

“January bookings are a weather vane for the travel industry – early indicators of customer confidence and popular destinations” Mirror says in an article on top Google’s travel-related searches.

There is less snow and ice than usual for this season, but for the 11th consecutive year the Hotel of Ice in Romania's Carpathian Mountains has opened its doors as scheduled, just after Christmas.

Turkey saw a dramatic drop in the number of foreign arrivals from Europe and Russia in the first 11 months of the year, while the number of total foreign arrivals saw only a slight decline (around 1.36 percent) in the mentioned period compared to the first eleven months of 2014, according to temporary data revealed by the Tourism Ministry on Dec. 29. 

Few unoccupied hotels have accomodation left for the Christmas break with few rooms left proving that Greece is a popular winter destination. Hotel occupancy has reached 90% with hotel owners stating that it will reach 100% over the next few days.

Russian tour operators are turning their focus to Asian destinations like Thailand and China, after the country's tourism board banned package holidays to Turkey in response to the shooting down of a Russian jet near the Syrian border last month. 

The number of overnight stays in Bulgarian hotels and other accommodation facilities rose by 3.7% on the year in October, reaching 727,800, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on Thursday.

In October, 71.1% of all overnight stays offoreign citizens and 31.6% of all overnights spent by Bulgarian citizens were registered infour- and five-star hotels.

Turkey's southeastern provinces, which enjoyed a tourism boon during the de-facto cease-fire period between 2013 and the first half of 2015, are now facing a big decline in the number of visitors, with less tours heading to the region over security concerns.

Airlines are increasingly rushing to bridge the gap between business class and economy. In times whe the price of a flight is falling, a number of economy passengers are feeling the downgrading of services while airlines are considering the creation of a new brand of premium economy class.