UPDATE3: Russia travel ban on Turkey means multibillion losses for tour firms

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MOSCOW/SIMFEROPOL, Nov 25 (PRIME) -- Russian tour firms’ losses from a ban on Turkish tourism may amount to millions of U.S. dollars and exceed losses from prohibition of travelling to Egypt, if the ban lasts for a couple of months, the Association of Tour Operators said in a statement on Wednesday.

“It is premature to speak about significant losses for the business yet, because November is an off-season in Turkey. But if the conflict worsens and the ban on sales lasts for two to three months, the losses in tourism will exceed losses caused by the ban on flights to Egypt a lot,” the association said.

Russian tour operators have already estimated their losses from suspended sales of package tours to Turkey at 1.7 billion rubles, it said.

On Tuesday, Russia’s Sukhoi Su-24 bomber was shot down by an air-to-air Turkish missile and crashed in Syria.

After that, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recommended that Russian tourists do not visit Turkey in the near future due to “increasing terrorism threat” there and the Federal Agency for Tourism recommended that domestic tour operators suspend sales of package tours to Turkey, including those with flights via third countries.

The recommendation to avoid travelling to Turkey is based on an objective assessment of threats and is not a retaliatory measure after the incident, Lavrov said.

Dmitry Gorin, vice president of the tour firms’ association, said that all Russian tour operators are abandoning charter flights to Turkey, halted sales of tours to the country, but have no plans to evacuate tourists from the country. “Now all tour operators are abandoning charter flights and stopped selling tours. People who entered the country are holidaying as planned, it is not planned to evacuate them,” he said.

The cancellation of tours to Turkey will be a problem to up to 6,000 Russians, who have booked tours and paid for them, he said, adding that operators will offer them other tourist destinations or return their money. “Operators will offer other directions, Thailand for example, or pay money back.”

The current number of Russian tourists in Turkey is estimated at 10,000–11,000 people.

Turkey accounts for 60% of the Russian market for outbound tourism, and about 20% of Russians holidaying in the country now did so because flights to Egypt have been banned, Gorin said.

BANNED CHICKEN

The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight stopped imports of 162 tonnes of chicken meat from Turkey, whose veterinary certificates failed to meet Russian requirements, in the Russian Western exclave of Kaliningrad.

The watchdog said that the seal number in certificates did not correspond to the seal number on containers with products and that the service was waiting for additional information from the Turkish state veterinary service.

The Kaliningrad Region said that Russian companies satisfy almost all regional demand for poultry.

The Russian veterinary watchdog has already imposed restrictions on poultry supplies from Turkish company C.P. Standart Gida Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirkorti, the importer of banned chicken, from December 1, while the service found out that company’s products are infested with listeria.

Yuliya Melano, the Russian veterinary watchdog’s press secretary, said that the service has no plans to impose any additional restrictions on Turkish companies. “We expect no additional ñounter actions, control measures, increased control against Turkey in the near future.”

At present, 107 Turkish companies are allowed to export animal products to Russia, and 20 of them were covered by watchdog’s restrictions at one time; the current ban on chicken import is nothing extraordinary and was introduced after a laboratory check, according to the press-secretary.

Shamhal Ildarov, the president of the Russian Association of Textile Workers, has sent a letter to the government asking it to call on clients to stop buying textile and light industry products produced in Turkey. He also asked the government to consider imposing sanctions on these products until details of the Russia’s plane shootdown by Turkey have been investigated.

Crimea’s head Sergei Aksyonov said that the region suspends business relations and halts ferry service with Turkey. “There will be no connections with Turkey, including ferry one. We are not ready to cooperate with the Turkish business,” he said.

(65.6210 rubles – U.S. $1)

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