Question: How did the tourism relationship between Germany and Turkey develop?

KL: Primarily the relationship started very homogenously. First, after WW II, Germans came to Turkey to visit archaeological and cultural sites, as they were people on educational journeys and study trips. There were people who often read about these places. Then, they wanted to see them. And they had the chance to do it. Of course, weather was not a main factor neither the beach nor the accommodation. Instead, they targeted purposefully the places they wanted to visit, like Troy, Ephesus, Aspendos, or the Hagia Sophia or the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, etc. They just wanted to see these places. But by-and-by regular holiday tourists came who just wanted to have seaside vacations. In the meantime, we have a beautiful combination of those who prefer to visit the landmarks and seaside tourists who just want join two relaxing weeks in the beautiful hotels. Good food, nice weather, friendly personnel, this works too.

Question: Do you think that this relationship will work out as well in the future?

KL: I think so, yes. In my opinion, the occupancy rate here is not that high that we can talk about “mass-tourism” in its classical sense now. Of course there are a lot of tourists during some extreme weeks in the peak season but on the other hand, the hotels are constructed that spaciously that everyone has enough place for himself. To give an example, as far as I’ve heard, here, the Xanadu hotel has more sun beds then beds in the rooms – in the majority of cases, it is quite the opposite. If a hotelier is handling this cleverly, everyone will have his own place. When I look out from this window, I see that much empty grass lawns where someone could put his sun bed, isn’t that just beautiful? I don’t think it could be better.

Question: Let’s talk about more recent times. How was the Summer-Peak season in Turkey from DRV’s point of view and what are your expectations for 2008?    

KL: I expect that at year’s end, we will reach the same numbers of tourists – 4.2 million. – that we had the last top-year, 2005. There was a slideback of about 10 % in 2006 caused by several reasons. I want to give some solid reasons for the slide: First, we had the matter of the bird-flu that has been overstated by German media, and then it was about the caricature-crisis and last-but-not-least, there were some harmless terrorist attacks that have been built-up and overstated by the media again asserting “there is no chance of spending comfortable holidays in Turkey anymore”.

By the way, no Germans have been injured during these attacks. One more aspect is that we the Football World Championship in Germany that caused many Germans to travel – but within Germany. This year, we certainly are on the upturn again and I believe that we will reach the level of 2005 by the end of the year. Concerning your second question – about how will it keep on – I believe that due to the rainy summer that we had in Germany, many people will prefer to travel to “Weather-safe” countries, and for this, Turkey is choice “Number One” now.

Question: How did it happen that DRV made the decision to hold this year’s annual meeting in Antalya?

KL: I suggested it to the board and the board agreed in unison. This principle idea was based on this fact: If you review the places in where we held our annual meetings before, you will notice that we focused on places that many German tourist visit. That means that our association goes to where our customers go. Of course we could encapsulate ourselves and hold the meeting anywhere, on a ship or on any lonesome island in the South Seas. But this cannot be right; we have to be there, where our customers are. And because Turkey is the second most important destination in outgoing business for Germans, it was implicit for us to decide for Turkey.

The pivotal question was about whether to go to a big city like Ankara or possibly Istanbul or to go to a regular tourist resort. I pleaded to go where most Germans go and so, this could only be Antalya. Then there came a suggestion from the ministry of tourism to hold the meeting in Belek.

Question: Do you have a certain expectations that bound you with the place of the meeting, i.e. the impressions that your members will pick up in Belek?

KL: According to my impressions, there is no other place in the world where you can find such a concentration of premier-hotels in one place. I really know most places of the world. But I don’t know of any other manageable and small region of the world where you can find that many top-hotels, except in Belek.

Question: Let’s talk about a problematic issue. The question is being intensely discussed in Turkish media about how the hoteliers should handle the problem about the declining Euro currency and the even stronger declining of US Dollar. There are plans discussed to set contracts based on Turkish Lira in future. How would German travel agents and tour operators react to such an approach?

KL: This would be an approach that would not affect the German operators heavily. Simply because the Turkish Lira is very stable money concerned to Euro, while Euro is very stable money concerned to US Dollar and other currencies. But the movement of the TL is clearly in favour for TL concerned to Euro. After the monetary reform in Turkey, we started with the ratio of 1 Euro = 2 TL, by now, the ratio is at 1 : 1.65. That means: If contract would be set on a TL base in future, German operators would have to arrange so-called rate-assurance-deals, because important changes can happen – in favour of both sides. This then, would raise prices. This would make Turkish vacancies – unwillingly – more expensive. Therefore, I think Turkish hoteliers should better think twice and should maybe keep on setting contracts on a Euro base.

Question: Will they come together amicable in order to work-out a balance between both sides?

KL: We have always found a balance, as before with Spain when we had the problems with the Peseta. There, we also realised rate-assurance-deals but anyway, it raises costs because if you want to fix your calculation through your bank based on a certain currency rate for the entire season, you must pay your bank, and this affects your calculations.

Question: You stated that you are happy about the collaborations between Turkish tourism sector and the agencies in Germany during your press statement. As a concerned question, don’t you think there could be more spaces for a better collaboration between both?

KL: Your question should concern rather politics than hoteliers or agencies. I am on personally friendly terms with Ahmet Barut for many years. We talk to each other really point-blank. He tells me what doesn’t like as I tell him what I probably dislike and we always find reasonable compromises in everyone’s favour, as for the hoteliers on this side and for the German operators on the other side and of course for the favour of the chief part to whom everything is rolling about – the customer. There was a problem about the Turkish government which meanwhile is resolved. Turkey understood that it has to do more PR activities than it did in past. In my opinion, we realised a very successful Turkey-image campaign in Germany and I hope this will be kept on in future, and so it will be according to what I heard from the concerned manager of the ministry for tourism. I supported him by saying that Turkey needs a second phase of PR activities, not just an image campaign but also a product campaign.

Question: What is your idea about a product campaign?

KL: It means mainly that you collaborate with German operators in order to place ads in public and trade press papers with price offers about certain holiday products in Turkey.

Question: I think that Turkey still makes the same mistake by not promoting certain regions or cities, as Istanbul is an exception. Do you see solutions to highlight certain regions or cities like Italy, Spain, or France have been doing for many years?

KL: This could be an aim that you can try to work out but that you should not force. We have to see the troubles that could be caused by such a strategy as we have faced them in Italy. Tourism is fragmenting in Italy. There, its only about this or that region, well, İtaly also has many different problems; there is a sufficient capacity of beds but they are divided into countless small hotels. Fortunately, we haven’t got this matter here. I am not defending the politic of centralism but a sound federalism, this means, every region should calculate its limits and needs for itself; how many tourists can be tolerated, how many tourist does it need etc. So it is imaginable that campaigns could be made for certain regions but this mainly depends on the master plan that is prepared by the government and will be introduced to us during the annual meeting in November. We are waiting anxiously for this plan.

Question: While talking about the capacity of beds; there is a rumour that the capacity of beds on the Turkish Riviera has grown too fast. What is the opinion of DRV concerning this and do you think that Turkey is harming itself by the fact that the offer is going faster than the demand?

KL: It is certainly like this: There must be an offer in advance. You cannot expect a demand if there is no offer and this does not only concern tourism but it is the rule in general. There must be primarily an offer in advance, and then the demand will come afterwards. This may cause a breach for the difference between peak and post season. It is clear that Turkey is still not an all-year-long destination in people’s mind. We still have to work at that. But this is possible within a few years. This cannot be arranged from today for tomorrow. No one succeeded in this before. Turkey has all the possibilities for succeeding in it. But again, it is a question of the government’s master plan. Another point for success is that the hoteliers will have to maintain these wonderful hotels and make renovation works right on time; otherwise, it would be a fatal mistake. Anyway, I tried to denote this during my press statement; you should not construct a hotel on the last empty space on the coast. I think that this coast is already well-occupied with hotels. We have a sufficient capacity of beds by now. We should think more about building interesting hotels in different regions of Turkey, i.e. Cappadocia or some more hotels in other beautiful areas in Turkey that could tolerate more good hotels.

Question: A last question; not about Turkey but concerning the situation in Germany: How will the stories about German travel agencies progress? We heard about their complaints that they cannot compete anymore with online agencies. Will there be new structures with which their own position could be strengthened?

KL: Internet is an additional marketing channel which has equal rights with immobile agencies, call-centres and mobile holiday vendors. All that I can advise to immobile agencies, is to edit their own websites be competently present on the internet, as most agencies have already done. Therefore, I do not expect any dramatic situations on this issue. This is why our association offers seminars and courses for our members. The best way is to march at the head instead of the tail of the queue.

Thank you very much indeed.