Tourexpi: Would you give us some information about the LykiaWorld & LinksGolf Antalya facility, Lykia Group's most recent investment?

ZS: As you know, we opened our facility in April with a 'soft-opening'. This was a very soft opening. We will make our first real experiences this year. We have made an investment of 105 million Euros for this site. Some units on the facility are waiting for the second phase of constructions, expected to end in 2010. Two of them are a 9-hole Academy Course golf course and several villas. All of them will be completed in 2010, because they represent an additionally big investment in itself. This really is a very good project. One reason for this is the golf course. We offer our guests a golf course right next to the hotel, set on 1 million square meters. There is a 2.5 kilometre-long beach belonging to our guests and there are no neighbouring hotels to our facility. A reason for this is that the facility is situated amid a natural conservation area. Our facility is a part of the natural environment, owns the first and only regular Linksgolf field at the Mediterranean area and is located right at seafront.

Tourexpi: What are the characteristics of the golf course 'Linksgolf'?

ZS: There are about 36,000 officially licensed golf courses worldwide, but only 300 officially Linksgolf fields, that is almost one percent. Most links golf fields are available in Scotland, England, Scandinavian countries or others such as France, the U.S. and Far Eastern countries. The only real Linksgolf area at the Mediterranean region is our facility. We opened this course recently in November and immediately have received very enthusiastic responses. Golf players really like this area. The first tournament that we have organized in the field, the EPD tournament, was a great success. This area, which is already a very nice addition for the region of Belek as a golf centre, is representing a further jewel for Turkish tourism and a positive investment.

Tourexpi: What about other characteristics of this site?

SZ: Our facility has been designed following a special concept. The plant is housing a large number of different hotel buildings. Building structures have been planned to extend horizontally, this is why the highest building consists of only 4 floors. Landward from the beach, the hotel is nearly not to be seen. All rooms are very large; at least 35 square metres. All rooms have sea view and a panorama view of the Taurus Mountains. However, we tried to spread activity opportunities as much as possible to the whole plant. We want every guest to be able to practise any activity he demands without being disturbed by guests with other interests. In this way, we were able to separate relaxing areas such as Wellness & Spa from dynamic areas and the golf course. We set sports facilities in a neutral field. Because buildings are being spread into a wide area, different customer groups do not disturb each other.

Tourexpi: On what base and in which way do you corporate with foreign tour operators? Are you satisfied with their cooperation?

ZS: We are working with all tour operators abroad. Marketing activities are implemented with them and we take part at their road shows. However, we have a large marketing staff and foreign offices, which also practise dynamic marketing activities in target markets. Our staff travelled throughout winter to obtain direct contact to agencies, presenting visual, print and personal PR activities. These activities present our recent investment in Antalya as well as our previous investments in Fethiye, LykiaWorld Ölüdeniz and KappadociaLodge in Cappadocia. In addition, of course, we have ads in leading tourism journals of the world. Another source are our regular customers who visit us since the last 18 years. We still have direct correspondence with these customers. Moreover, we are now working together with RTK, a large travel agency cooperation and Tourexpi. There are, of course, also Television ads. For the moment, we are satisfied with our marketing activities.

Tourexpi: How are sales going?

ZS: Sales going rather weakly now. But this is a general phenomenon due to the crisis. Nevertheless, there was a significant increase in sales within the last week. This gives us hope. Now we expect better results from all these activities.

Tourexpi: Environmental and ecologic issues concerning golf courses have been discussed very often in Turkish media in recent years. In particular, the region of Belek was mentioned often because some believe that lots of trees have been cut in favour of golf courses. You don´t have this kind of problem concerning your plant?

ZS: Our advantage is that we had an area which was naturally very appropriate for golfing. This was an area where natural sand hills were already available. Our American golf designer Perry Dye, representing 3 generations of a family of golf course designers and specialized himself in Linksgolf courses, wanted to leave this area in its natural state as much as possible. Perry Dye was so exited when he saw this piece of land for the first time, he exclaimed neither his grandfather nor his father had been lucky enough to be able to plan such a wonderful course.

Here we didn´t have any trees at all from the beginning, this is one of the characteristics of a Linksgolf course anyway. Perry Dye did conserve the small bushes and the natural plant cover as well as a few singular trees. Even the small hillocks have been preserved as they are. Thus we really can boast of a very natural golf course.

When it comes to Belek; I think there have been too many unjustified and unfair allegations. That land has not been occupied illegally. The land has been allocated in a legal framework and existing trees in that area have all been registered. No trees were cut randomly.

I think we have to put all that into a right perspective. I think most golf courses are in the UK and they have much more trees and forests comparing to us. There a certain number of trees are also being cut for golf. But as in the UK, we are also looking for specific ratio due to calculated applicability and ecological perspective. Moreover, in general well maintained grass on golf courses produces more oxygen than some species of trees. That is why I believe that most of the news published about the ecological impact of golf courses in Belek are rather one-sided.

Tourexpi: What is your expectation for the upcoming season considering the global economic crisis?

ZS: We will have to face a tough season. Economic crisis will cause a decrease in people’s vacation desires because vacation is not vital. My expectation is that people will make shorter and fewer vacations. But people will not completely give up making holidays. After all, there will be a contraction in demand. We will see the impact much clearer in March and April. The common estimation is a regression of about 15 percent. I think that Turkey will be one of the in the best-standing countries in the period of crisis concerning tourism. We are very competitive in many aspects; a good price / service ratio, and very high quality standards for products and services. For this reason I consider Turkey will be fortunate. I do not expect a serious decline from European markets, perhaps except from some specific countries like Belgium or Holland. Sales will be made lately. A decline of demand from the European markets will rather more have a serious impact on the western Mediterranean regions. I think the biggest setback will come from the Russian market, but we will have to wait and see. The time is not right to make definitive predictions. But what is already certain is that we will have to face a stressful and tough year. There will be a large number of last-minute sales. People will look at costs. You will need to be more careful this year.

Tourexpi: Thank you very much for this interesting conversation.