OREANDA-NEWS  Turkey entered the top five most expensive foreign destinations for Russians for the first time in the summer of 2023. This was announced by the executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze, reports TASS.

According to her, the Maldives became the most expensive foreign summer destination — the average cost of a ten-day vacation there was 390 thousand rubles for two. Cuba (238 thousand rubles), Sri Lanka (213 thousand rubles) and Turkey (183 thousand rubles) also entered the top 5. "This has not happened in the entire history of tourism," Lomidze stressed.

She noted that due to such a pricing policy, Turkey did not count Russian tourists in 2023. The situation was not corrected even by the appearance of "burning tours" to the country, which still cost more than the Russians could afford.

In general, summer holidays abroad have risen in price by about 15 percent this year compared to the same period in 2022, while in Russia the dynamics is slightly less, Lomidze concluded.

July 29 Tourism Advisor to the Mayor of Antalya and former head of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TÜROFED) Osman Ayik stated that an absolute rejection of the all-inclusive system in hotels in Turkey is unlikely, but variations may appear due to different requirements of tourists and increased prices for holidays.