A wish for 2011

Welcome 2011!  I hope it will be a great year for all of you and bring you health, happiness and ‘huzur’ – a lovely Turkish word that means something like ‘peace of mind’.

At Poppy, I hope it brings us plenty of new guests as well as old friends and that we are once again able to help people enjoy their holiday.  The nicest thing about running a hotel is when people tell us what a special time they had with us and there were more than ever of those last year.

But today I also made a more general wish for tourism in Turkey. It started when I saw a home-made poster in a car, saying ‘this car is running on the most expensive petrol in the world’.  Yes – it’s true!  You might think petrol is expensive in your country but I can promise you it is more expensive here.

Besides fuel, there are many things which are now more expensive in Turkey than in the UK.  We pay more for meat and cheese, alcoholic drinks, all electrical goods from mobile phones to washing machines and way more for cars.  In addition our phone bills are higher, car tax is often more (it varies by car type) and electricity costs as much as it does in the UK.  The rise in the cost of living over the last few years has caused a number of Brits who were living here to leave.

And yet the biggest selling-point for Turkey is still that it is ‘cheap’.  Where’s the catch?  The catch is that at unrealistically low prices, everyone loses out.  When a tour operator pays rock bottom prices for hotel rooms, hoteliers are making little or no profit.  But guests are also suffering as the standard of service and accommodation falls.  If restaurants are obliged to keep prices down to attract business, they will look for ways to make savings – and the food will suffer!

If we want standards to be maintained and improved in Turkey the prices are going to have to be more realistic.  It will still be cheaper than many European holiday destinations but the low cost will no longer be the USP…so this is my wish:

Let 2011 be the year when Turkey begins to be promoted by tour operators and travel agents for its REAL qualities; take your pick – and add your own – to the list below:

Beautiful scenery

Fantastic climate

Warm sea and unspoiled beaches

Friendly people

Culture and history

Great food

Adventure sports (paragliding, diving, white water rafting)

Shopping (where else can you find so many designer brands at 

 affordable prices?!)